■ 

iBRp 

fill! 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE  QUESTION  SOLVED: 


AN  ANSWER  TO 


REV.  DR.  CLARK'S 


"Question  of  the  Hour," 


AND  UIS   OTUEK 


ANTI-CATHOLIC  PKOBLEMS. 


LT 


JAMES  C.  HANNAN. 


ALBANY: 

WKKD,    PAB802TB    A.M.    ■  oMi'ANY,    l'lUNTKKS. 

1870. 


Entered,  according  to  act  of  Congress,  In  the  year  1870,  by 

JAMES  C.  HANNAN, 

In  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States 
for  the  Northern  District  of  New  York. 


PBEFACE. 


In  submitting  this  little  volume  to  the  kind 
consideration   of    the    citizens  of   Albany,   the 
simple  object  of  the  writer  is  to  take  issue  with 
many  of  our  Protestant  ministers,  particularly 
Dr.  Clark,  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  alias 
'*  two-steepled"   church,   alias  First    Reformed 
Church,  who  has  lately  been  moving  the  heavens 
and  the  earth  against  the  Catholics  and  their 
principles.    This  self-constituted  minister  of  the 
gospel  of  peace,  if  he  is  sincere  in  what  he  utters, 
is  one  of  the  most  bare-faced  perverters  of  God's 
trutb,  tbat  it  has  been  our  misfortune  to  hear  in 
a  long  time.     At  that  season  of  the  year  when 
the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Christ  is  being 
celebrated   by   God's  'people   throughout   every 
land  and  clime,  when  the  true  ministers  of  the 
gospel  are  preaching  pence  and  forgiveness  to  a 
sin-stricken   world,  this  counterfeit    holds  forth 
m  his  Dutch  pulpit,  and,  in  the  sacred  and  holy 


iv  PREFACE. 

name  of  God,  bears  false  witness  against  his 
neighbors,  falsifies  their  motives,  perverts  history 
against  them,  and  scatters   seeds  of  hate   and 
strife  in  a  community  where  peace  and  harmony 
should  prevail.     This  ought  not  to  be  the  case, 
at  this  age  and  in  this  country.     Where  is  the 
need  of  plump,  well-fed  parsons  agitating  relig- 
ious feuds,  and  poisoning  the  minds  of  their 
hearers  against  a  faith  instituted  by  the  Son  of 
God  —  proclaimed  by  the  Evangelists  —  preached 
by  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  St.  Patrick  and  St. 
Augustine  —  for  which    kings    had   laid   down 
their  crowns,  and  martyrs   their  sacred  lives? 
When  one  contemplates  the  position  that  this 
man  occupies,  as  lecturer  to  a  congregation  of 
our  fellow  citizens  who  wield  a  large  amount  of 
influence  in  commercial  circles  and  the  affairs 
of  every-day  life,  and  who  are  too  closely  con- 
fined to  business  to  investigate  Theology,  or  the 
history  of  the  Christian  Church,  the  faith  and 
practices  of  Catholic  people,  nor  what  they  have 
accomplished  for  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord,  is  it 
to  be  wondered  at   that   they  feel  a  prejudice 
against  us  ?     Under  such  an  influence,  it  would 
not  be  surprising  if  they  should  break  off  all 


PREFACE.  V 

communication,  socially,  with  any  one  bearing 
the  name  of  Catholic,  discharge  all  in  their  em- 
ploy, as  persons  dangerous  both  in  the  commu- 
nity and  family  circle,  organize  native  American, 
know-nothing  and  no-Popery  combinations,  pull 
down  churches,  burn  convents,  tar  and  feather 
Catholic  priests,  and  defame  and  insult  those 
leading  pure  and  pious  lives  in  religious  com- 
munity, as  has  been  done  often  before  in  many 
parts  of  this  enlightened  republic.     It  is  an  old 
dodge  of  Protestant  preachers,  when  they  fail  to 
interest  their  hearers,  to  ransack  the  Scriptures 
for  quaint  and  ambiguous  texts  to  preach  from, 
and  when  those  become  stale,  their  last  resource 
is  sure  to  be  a  tirade  against  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  that  never  fails  to  keep  up  the  attention. 
Do  Protestants  imagine  that  we  have  no  fine 
feelings  —  no  rights  —  no  honesty  of  purpose  — 
that  we  are  a  God-forsaken  people,  ignorant  and 
degraded  —  averse  to  every  sense  of  right,  and 
barely  to  be  tolerated?     They  must   certainly 
tli ink  bo,  if  they  believe   such   men  as  Clark, 
Darling  &  Co.    It  is  with  (his  view,  therefore, 
that  the  writer  takes  upon  himself  the  responsi- 
bility of  placing  the  subject  fairly  before  them, 
1* 


VI  PREFACE. 

leaving  the  issue  to  truth  and  their  sense  of 
justice. 

I  regret  exceedingly,  that  I  have  not  the 
manuscripts  from  which  Dr.  Clark  read  his 
Sunday  evening  lectures,  in  order  that  I  might 
follow  him  step  by  step.  These  are  beyond  my 
reach,  so  he  must  be  met  upon  general  princi- 
ples; besides,  it  would  take  more  time  than  I 
could  spare  from  my  daily  occupation  to  answer 
all  his  accusations,  as  I  understand  that  he 
scarcely  lets  a  Sunday  pass,  the  year  round, 
without  railing  in  some  way  against  Catholics. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Protestant  writers  and  speakers  —  Their  influence  and  char- 
acter—Dr.  Clark's  position  — Catholics  not  unbelievers 
In  revealed  religion. 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  Church  of  Rome,  not  the  Church  of  Anti-Christ  — 
Heresy  and  heresiarchs  — Defenders  of  Catholic  faith  In 
all  ages. 

CHAPTER  III. 

Our  bishops  and  priests  faithful  to  Zion—  The  anniversary 
of  Torn  Paine  —  Catholics  and  the  war  of  independence 
—  False  charges  against  our  American  bishops  —  Liberty 
and  the  Church  —  Protestantism  in  league  with  despot- 
Ism— The  Church  and  the  civil  power  — The  relative 
political  influence  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  ministers 
over  their  congregations. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Protestant  preachers  and  the  Inquisition  — The  Inquisition 
and  the  Waldenses  — St.  Dominic  and  the  Inquisition  — 
Bpain  and  the  Inquisition —Pope  Slxtus  IV  and  the 
Inquisition  —  Pascal  —  Rome  tho  Jewish  paradise. 

CHAPTER  V. 

ProteBtant  sal n U>  -  Cruelties  of  the  Hollanders  in  forcing 
Protestantism  Into  tho  Netherlands  — The  Prince  of 
Orange  and  Duke  of  Alva  — The  Thirty  Years  War  —  Per- 


Till  TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 

seditions  in  tho  reign  of  Ilenry  VIII  —  Penal  code  of 
Elizabeth  — Ireland  drenched  with  the  blood  of  her  chil- 
dren—D'Aubignc  and  St.  Patrick  — Desecration  of  tho 
graves  of  Irish  saints. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Landing  of  the  Pilgrims— Puritan  Intolerance  — The  Blue 
Laws  — The  Quaker  persecution  — Puritanical  hypocrisy 

—  Witches  —  Catholic  colony  of  Maryland  —  Indian  con- 
versions—Protestant intrigue  in  Maryland. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  blessings  of  education  when  accompanied  by  religion  — 
Pagan  education— The  establishment  of  the  Church  — 
Its  benign  influence  on  society— The  object  of  education 

—  Early  training  of  youth. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Catholics  do  not  desire  the  destruction  of  the  public  school 
system  — Their  objections  to  it  as  it  now  stands  — The 
Bible  too  sacred  to  be  profaned  in  the  school-room  — 
Clark  on  Catholic  ignorance  —  Bancroft's  opinions  — 
Catholic  and  Protestant  missions  —  Protestant  knowl- 
edge of  the  Catholic  Church  —  Why  Catholics  object  to 
reading  the  Bible  in  public  schools  — Catholics  not  will- 
ing to  separate  secular  and  religious  education  —  Dr. 
Clark  and  the  Cincinnati  school  board  — He  misrepre- 
sents the  Catholic  claim  — Opinion  of  Hartford  Courant 
and  other  papers  on  the  school  question — Protestant 
ministers  exciting  the  people  to  tumult  —  The  wrath  of 
the  Observer  man  —  Dr.  Clark  as  a  weather-cock—"  Why 
do  Catholics  come  among  us  V\ 

CHAPTER  IX. 

The  French  Revolution  and  the  Protestant  educational  sys- 
tem—Education in  England  before  the  Reformation  — 
The  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages  — Mr.  Kay's  travels  in 
Europe  — His  estimate  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  educa- 
tion—Statistics— The  prosperity  of  Catholic  colleges 
and  universities  during  the  Middle  Ages  — Education  in 
England  after  the  Reformation  — Catholics  do  not  hate 
the  Bible  — Protestant  boasting. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS,  ix 

CHAPTER  X. 

False  accusations  against  the  Church  — Sincerity  and  intel- 
lect seek  Rome,  hypocrisy  and  ignorance  seek  Geneva  — 
Comparison  between  Catholics  and  Protestants  on  their 
death-beds  — Brilliant  eulogies  passed  on  the  Church  by 
distinguished  Protestants  — The  changing  of  Protestants 
from  one  communion  to  another  — Protestant  pride. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Dr.  Clark's  trip  to  Europe  — His  visit  to  the  city  of  the  Pon- 
tiffs—Lying statistics  of  morality  by  Protestant  minis- 
ters—An  old  dodge— Comparison  between  Wie  Fathers 
of  the  Church  and  the  Leaders  of  the  Reformation  — 
Vagaries  of  Protestants  — The  immorality  of  the  Re- 
formers—The vile  practices  of  the  Antinomians  — The 
profligate  lives  of  Protestant  monarchs  and  rulers. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Morality  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  countries  — Intemper- 
ance —Sir  Francis  Head  compliments  Ireland  — Fearful 
list  of  spurious  births  in  Protestant  countries— Rev. 
Dr.  Halley's  opinion  of  immorality  and  unbelief  in 
Geneva  — Mr.  Laing's  statistics  —  Contrast  between 
Catholic  and  Protestant  cantons  of  Switzerland  — No 
restraint  among  Protestant  youth  — Crime  on  the  In- 
crease— Foeticide  and  infanticide— Divorce  laws— Im- 
moralities In  and  around  the  halls  of  legislation  — 
Clerical  vlllians  of  tlio  Protestant  stripe  — Protestant 
cupidity —  Tin-  Dutch  the  only  people  capablo  of  tram- 
pling on  the  cross  In  the  ports  of  Japan—  The  hollowness 
of  Protestant  piety  —  Predictions  of  Protestants  — Some 
hope  of  Dr.  Clark's  conversion. 


The  Question  Solved. 


CHAP.  I. 

PBOTE8TANT  WRITERS  AND  SPEAKERS —THEIR  INFLUENCE  AND 
CHARACTER  — DR.  CLARK'S  POSITION  —  CATHOLICS  NOT  UNBE- 
LIEVERS IN  REVEALED  RELIGION. 

THERE  is  a  class  of  public  speakers,  who 
neither  impress  the  understanding,  nor 
warm  the  affections.  They  may  polish  off 
a  sentence  and  round  a  period  with  much 
eloquence,  but  watch  them  closely  and  you 
cannot  fail  to  discover  considerable  strain- 
ing after  popularity.  In  seeking  reputation 
in  this  way,  more  especially  when  they 
undertake  to  discuss  the  Catholic  question, 
their  love  of  display  carries  them  so  far 
beyond  themselves,  that  they  forget  all 
their  obligations  to  truth.  Their  concep- 
tions of  common  sense  are  at  times  so  low, 
that  they  seem  to  los<-  tin-  proper  use  of 


12  THE    QUESTION   SOLVED. 

their  faculties.  Instead  of  bread,  they  give 
us  a  stone ;  and  for  a  fish,  they  hand  us 
a  serpent.  By  their  much  talking,  they 
remind  one  of  the  citizens  of  Plato's  com- 
monwealth—  capable  of  controlling  every 
thing,  but  performing  nothing.  Their  work 
is  done  like  their  preaching  —  on  paper. 
To  this  class  Dr.  Clark  properly  belongs. 
Take  Protestant  ministers  generally,  and 
their  logic,  not  to  mention  their  theology, 
is  the  flimsiest  in  existence.  Their  preach- 
ing is  a  mixture  of  Christianity,  infidelity, 
and  sophistry.  Unscrupulous  in  their  at- 
tacks against  the  Church  of  Christ,  they 
show  a  vindictive  spirit  akin  to  the  arch 
enemy  of  souls.  Nothing  is  right  but 
what  they  dictate,  and  nothing  true  but 
what  tallies  with  their  narrow,  perverted 
notions.  If  you  speak  of  a  holy  office  in 
God' s  Church,  which  tends  to  soothe  and 
comfort  the  sinner,  they  shout  with  holy 
horror,  "Popish  invention  ;  false  doctrine," 
etc.  If  a  Catholic  artist,  full  of  faith  and 
devotion  to  his  church,  transfers  to  the 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  13 

canvas  his  conception  of  some  religious 
idea,  or  historic  event,  lie  is  hounded  down 
as  an  enemy  to  moral  instruction,  and  con- 
tributor to  idolatry ;  while  the  gross  con- 
ceptions of  Greece  and  Pagan  Rome,  or  the 
more  modern  work  of  the  great  unknown — 
the  "Cardiff  Giant,1'  is  lauded  to  the  skies. 
They  are  so  accustomed  to  look  upon 
tilings  which  we  hold  to  be  true  and  edify- 
ing, through  a  distorted  vision,  that  they 
can  hardly  distinguish  a  prism  of  light  and 
shade  from  a  lump  of  charcoal.  The  beau- 
ties of  Catholic  worship,  the  grandeur 
of  Catholic  architecture,  the  magnificence 
of  Catholic  painting  and  Catholic  music, 
are  to  them  blemishes,  useless  and  unbe- 
coming, because  above  their  capacities. 
They  remind  me  of  the  man  who  got  angry 
at  the  Creator,  because  in  some  parts  of 
the  heavens  he  placed  more  stars  than  in 
others.  If  a  poor  Catholic  should  excel 
his  fellows  in  virtue  and  holiness,  they  will 
attribute  his  devotion,  not  to  the  grace  of 
God.   working  in   his  soul,  but  to  some 


14  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

superstitious  or  selfish  motive.  In  this 
way,  and  by  such  teaching,  Protestants 
grow  iip  like  poisonous  weeds,  with  the 
spirit  of  evil  continually  gnawing  at  their 
hearts  ;  while  their  ministers,  with  tongues 
of  serpents,  keep  on  distilling  venom  and 
malice  from  Sunday  to  Sunday,  which  they 
infuse  into  the  minds  of  their  hearers,  thus 
fostering  hatred  toward  a  class  of  their 
fellow-citizens,  who  never  did  them  wrong. 
They  grudge  us  the  sun  by  day,  and  the 
moon  by  night,  and  would  poison  the  very 
air  we  breathe,  if  they  had  the  power,  and 
it  would  not  injure  themselves.  Dioclesian 
and  Tiberius  possessed  this  spirit;  such 
was  the  conduct  of  Cain  when  he  killed 
his  brother;  and  wicked  men  in  all  ages 
have  cherished  such  feelings.  Many  even 
went  so  far  as  to  make  goblets  of  the 
skulls  of  their  victims  (who  were  their 
supposed  enemies),  out  of  which  they  be- 
came drunk  with  revenge,  as  did  the  mon- 
ster Albonus. 
Now,   the    great    oracle  of  the    Dutch 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  15 

Church  would  have  his  people  believe 
that  Catholics  are  the  enemies  of  all  that 
is  good  and  noble  in  this  life  or  the  life  to 
come.  This  Christian  teacher  is  wofully 
ignorant  as  regards  this  subject,  or  else  a 
wicked  perverter  of  what  he  knows  to  be 
true.  We  cannot  excuse  him  on  the  plea 
of  ignorance,  for,  by  his  style  of  preach- 
ing, we  should  judge  that  he  has  made  the 
short-comings  of  Catholics  a  greater  study 
than  the  spiritual  necessities  of  his  flock ; 
and,  besides,  how  could  a  Protestant  D.  D. 
be  ignorant  of  the  faith  and  practice  of 
Christian  sects  %  Did  he  not  study  his  Bible 
in  the  common  schools,  those  great  foun- 
tains of  inspiration,  the  bulwarks  of  the 
State  and  the  milestones  on  the  high  road 
to  liberty  and  progress  ?  We  must,  there- 
fore, accuse  him  of  forgery,  black  and 
offensive,  full  of  malice,  jealousy  and  re- 
venge. The  Catholic  Church  defines  it  to 
be  a  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  to  impugn 
the  known  truth  by  arguing  obstinately 
against  points  of  faith  and  holy  practices, 


16  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

or  to  prevent  the  way  of  our  Lord,  by- 
forging  lies  against  Catholics  and  slander- 
ing the  Church  of  Christ,  as  heretics  and 
infidels  do. 

Dr.  Clark,  in  his  preaching,  or,  more 
properly,  prating,  reminds  one  of  the  han- 
dle of  a  jug:  he  is  all  on  one  side.  He 
claims  all  the  virtues,  all  the  learning, 
wisdom,  and  progress  of  the  age ;  his  peo- 
ple are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  and  the  First 
Church,  although  it  stands  in  a  hollow,  he 
places  on  the  top  of  Mount  Zion.  Happy 
people !  thrice  happy  Doctor  ! 

I  would  not  be  surprised  if,  some  bright 
morning  or  other,  we  should  see  the  learned 
Doctor,  trumpet  in  hand,  proclaiming  aloud 
at  the  corner  of  Van  Schaack  and  North 
Pearl  streets,  ' '  We  are  the  chosen  of  Israel, 
the  Lord' s  anointed ;  we  love  God  and  our 
neighbor  as  ourselves ;  we  are  as  full  of 
intelligence,  moral  worth,  and  good  will  to 
men,  as  ever  we  can  hold  !  Come  this  way, 
all  ye  people  in  search  of  salvation,  and  I 
will  show  you  more  big  I '  s  in  this  congre- 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  17 

gation  of  ours  than  you  ever  saw  before ! 
Be  careful !  would  ye  go  near  the  whore  of 
Babylon  I  Hearken  not  to  Anti-Christ,  or 
the  scarlet  lady !  Beware  of  Popery,  and 
the  superstition,  ignorance,  and  idolatry 
of  Catholics  !  Listen  well !  don't  you  hear 
the  old  Pope  and  his  seven  hundred  bish- 
ops forging  chains  this  very  instant,  to 
bind  the  American  people  hand  and  foot ! 
Keep  out  of  the  way  of  all  those  Catholic 
priests,  although  one  of  them  performs 
more  ministerial  duties  in  a  day  than  I  do 
in  a  month,  and  makes  more  converts  from 
Protestantism  to  Rome  in  one  year,  than  I 
have  from  Popery  since  I  received  my  ordi- 
nation, from  a  man  who  never  received 
proper  authority  to  ordain  me  !  Come  in 
here,  all  you  staunch  nativists,  and  hear 
me  handle  the  subject  of  the  Bible  and 
Common  Schools  !  Father  Lndden  hasgone 
to  Rome,  that  wicked  old  city,  where  the 
people  are  all  as  ignorant  as  stuffed  pigs  ; 
he  will  not  be  here  to  bring  us  to  an  account 

for  bad  logic  and  inconsistency  in  matters 
2* 


18  THE   QUESTION  SOLVED. 

pertaining  to  the  public  weal !  He  took  up 
the  cudgel  once  before  against  four  of  us, 
Christian  giants,  as  we  are,  and,  like  a 
true  Irishman,  knocked  us  clean  out  of 
time !  So,  come  in  here,  I  say,  and  we  will 
have  a  good  time  by  ourselves ;  we  will 
clap  our  hands  together,  stuff  our  people 
with  all  manner  of  accusations,  rash  judg- 
ments, and  lies,  to  sustain  our  cause,  and 
the  members  of  our  conventicle  will  retire 
to  their  homes,  satisfied  that  a  second  Paul 
has  arisen  in  the  person  of  i",  Rufus  W. 
Clark,  D.  D.,  once  a  Congregationalist, 
but  now  a  Reformed  Dutch  Protestant!" 

If  Rufus  W.  Clark  will  stand  up  in  his 
pulpit,  like  an  honest  man,  and  argue  out 
the  questions  which  divide  Catholics  and 
Protestants,  in  a  generous,  logical  manner, 
throw  aside  prejudice  and  ill-will,  speak 
respectfully  of  those  who  entertain  opin- 
ions contrary  to  his  own,  and  prove  that 
the  250,000,000  Catholics  are  all  in  the 
wrong,  and  a  handful  of  Dutch  Reformed 
Protestants  all  in  the  right,  I,  for  one,  will 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  19 

extend  to  him  my  most  sincere  thanks. 
Can  he  put  his  finger  on  the  first  article  of 
Christian  faith,  necessary  to  salvation,  that 
the  Roman  Catholic  disbelieves  ?  He  pro- 
claims to  his  congregation  that  the  Pope  is 
the  foe  of  God,  that  all  Catholics  are  idol- 
aters, and  classes  them  with  atheists,  infi- 
dels, and  unbelievers  of  every  shade.  Good 
kind  and  amiable  pastor,  you  remind  me 
of  a  man  who  was  in  the  habit  of  getting 
drunk.  Coming  to  the  door  of  his  dwell- 
ing, he  would  stand  upon  the  threshold, 
and  seeing  his  wife  sober  and  industrious, 
attending  to  her  domestic  duties,  he  would 
call  out  to  her,  "You're  drunk;"  "goto 
bed  ; "  "  you  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  your- 
self, you  good  for  nothing;"  and  if  the 
poor  thing  would  reply  in  justification  of 
herself,  and  point  out  his  sin  and  folly,  he 
would  knock  her  down,  and  then  kick  her 
because  she  fell. 

Again,  Protestants,  after  abusing  us  and 
taunting  us  with  ignorance,  irreligion  and 
every  other  foul  epithet,  will  turn  round 


20  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

and  tell  us  they  did  it  for  our  good  and 
lasting  happiness,  and  because  they  love 
our  souls.  Yes !  they  love  our  souls  as 
the  wicked  young  man  loved  his  mother, 
who,  on  becoming  enraged  at  her,  deter- 
mined to  do  her  violence,  but  ashamed  to 
do  it  in  an  ungracious  manner,  he  caught 
her  in  his  arms,  crying  out,  "Mother,  I 
love  you;  Mother,  I  love  you,"  and 
squeezed,  and  squeezed  until  he  broke  her 
ribs.  I  can  see  how  an  Infidel  or  a  Free- 
thinker can  war  against  us,  but  how  a  man 
claiming  to  be  a  minister  of  Christ  can 
accuse  us  of  being  hostile  to  the  interests 
of  God  and  man,  is  more  than  I  can  well 
conceive,  unless  Satan  is  his  master,  in- 
stead of  Jesus. 

This  Evangelical  teacher,  with  a  most 
brazen  effrontery,  proclaims  from  his  pulpit 
that  the  Catholic  has  no  true  faith,  but  is  a 
slavish  adherent  to  what  his  priest  imposes 
upon  him  ;  and  he  observes  no  obligation 
save  that  which  corresponds  to  the  slavery, 
degradation  and  craft  of  Rome.    Let  me  as- 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  21 

sure  the  good  people  of  the  First  Reformed 
Church  (a  title,  it  seems  to  me,  very  much 
out  of  place  at  this  period  of  the  Christian 
Era)  that  Catholics  are  not  as  ignorant  of 
what  pertains  to  their  salvation,  as  their 
pastor  would  have  them  believe ;  and  al- 
though a  large  number  of  them  do  not 
study  their  Bible  as  Protestants  do,  never- 
theless they  know  the  duties  of  a  Christian, 
and  should  any  of  them  stray  away  from 
their  faith,  and  pursue  a  course  of  sin  and 
shame,  the  fault  does  not  lie  at  the  door  of 
our  Holy  Church,  or  at  the  feet  of  our 
pastors  and  teachers. 

"Faith  is  a  gift  of  God,  or  a  supernatural 
quality  infused  by  God  into  the  soul,  by 
which  we  firmly  believe  all  those  things 
which  he  hath  in  any  way  revealed  to  us  ; 
and  without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please 
(i  od."  This  every  Catholic  child  learns  as 
soon  as  he  comes  to  the  use  of  reason.  He 
is  :ilso  taught  that  faith  alone  will  not  save 
him,  without  good  works,  and  that  he  must 
observe    the    precepts    of   God    and    His 


22  THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

Church.  He  learns  that  the  Old  and  New- 
Testaments  are  the  works  of  divine  inspi- 
ration, and  a  precious  legacy  left  to  God' s 
Holy  Church,  full  of  instruction,  replete 
with  wisdom  and  sublime  thought.  He 
believes  also  that  the  Holy  and  Apos- 
tolic Church  and  its  ministers  are  the  only 
true  and  reliable  interpreters  of  the  sacred 
volume.  Every  Catholic  child  is  taught  to 
believe  that  there  is  but  one  God,  who 
created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  out  of 
nothing  and  by  His  word  only  —  that  He 
created  man  to  his  own  image  and  likeness, 
giving  him  will,  memory  and  understand- 
ing—  that  the  object  of  man's  creation  was 
that  he  might  know,  love  and  serve  God  in 
this  life,  and  be  happy  with  Him  in  the 
next.  He  is  also  required  to  know  that  in 
this  one  God  there  are  three  distinct  per- 
sons —  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  that  God  the  Son,  the  second  per- 
son of  the  Blessed  Trinity,  came  down  from 
heaven,  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  to 
redeem  man   from  the  dominion  of  sin, 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  23 

to  which  he  became  subject  through  the 
violation  of  God' s  holy  law.  The  Catholic 
fully  believes  in  the  death  and  resurrection 
of  that  same  Jesus,  and  that  He  shall  come 
again,  at  the  last  day,  to  judge  the  world — 
that  the  good  shall  possess  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven,  and  the  wicked  be  banished  for- 
ever from  the  presence  of  God.  He  also 
believes  that  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  the  third 
person  of  the  Trinity,  is  equal  with  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  and  that  He  descended 
upon  the  Apostles,  in  the  form  of  tongues 
of  fire,  to  strengthen  them  to  preach  the 
Gospel  and  plant  the  Church.  He  be- 
lieves, too,  all  the  articles  contained  in  the 
Apostles'  creed,  in  all  the  commandments 
of  God,  and  the  precepts  of  His  Holy 
Church  ;  and  that  the  Catholic  Church  is 
none  other  than  that  self-same  institution, 
established  by  the  Apostles  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Now,  if  she  is  not  that  Church  of  which 
St.  Peter  was  the  visible  head,  will  Dr. 
Clark  be  kind  enough  to  tell  us  which  isi! 


24  THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

What  other  church  has  come  down  to  us 
by  perpetual  succession,  if  it  be  not  the 
Catholic  Church,  through  which  our  bish- 
ops, priests,  and  other  holy  persons  re- 
ceive doctrine,  orders,  and  power  to  teach 
and  perforin  religious  duties,  for  the  edifi- 
cation and  spiritual  comfort  of  God' s  poor  ? 

Catholics  love  their  Church  because  they 
believe  it  to  be  God'  s  kingdom  on  earth, 
and  receive  with  submission  whatever  she 
proposes  to  their  belief,  because  she  is  the 
pillar  and  ground  of  truth,  and  cannot  err 
in  what  she  teaches.  They  know  that 
Christ  gave  the  promise  to  St.  Peter,  the 
first  Pope  and  Bishop  of  Rome,  that  the 
gates  of  hell  should  not  prevail  against  His 
Church,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  should  bestow 
on  her  all  truth,  and  that  He  himself  would 
forever  abide  with  her. 

Ours  is  not  a  faith  given  to  speculation 
or  to  doubt  —  such  a  faith  is  worse  than 
none  at  all.  The  spirit  of  speculation  in 
matters  of  religion,  is  no  more  to  be  com- 
pared to  that  warm,  living,  active  faith  of 


THE    QUESTION   SOLVED.  25 

Catholics,  than  the  song  of  "Jim  along 
Josey,"  is  to  the  Psalms  of  David !  I 
would  as  soon  trust  Dagon  on  the  ark  of 
God,  as  to  trust  the  private  interpretation 
of  the  Scriptures  to  save  my  soul.  This 
jumbling  together  of  individual  notions 
and  opinions,  and  calling  it  Christianity, 
is  as  ridiculous  as  to  affirm  that  a  child's 
kaleidoscope  is  the  meridian  sun.  But 
Dr.  Clark  says,  we  are  the  foes  of  God, 
enemies  of  Christianity,  and  know  nothing 
of  Christ  and  His  divine  attributes.  Thank 
you,  Reverend  Sir,  for  the  high  opinion 
you  entertain  of  us ;  but  look  out !  we  warn 
you  of  the  wrath  to  come,  when  every  liar 
shall  have  liis  portion  in  the  "lake  that 
burns  with  brimstone  and  with  lire!" 
3 


CHAP.  II. 

The    church    of  home,   not    the  church   of   anti-christ  — 
hi:i:i;sv  AND  HKRESIARCHS  — defenders   of  catholic  faith 

IN  ALL  AGES. 

TS  Dr.  Clark  in  earnest,  when  he  de- 
*~  nounces  the  Church  of  Rome,  as  the 
Church  of  Anti-Christ,  or  is  he  only  pull- 
ing the  wool  over  the  eyes  of  his  congrega- 
tion ?  If  he  was  not  embarked  in  the  cause 
of  the  evil  one,  he  never  again  would  put 
on  the  black  gown  to  uphold  error  and 
retard  the  progress  of  Christ's  Church  on 
earth.  Let  me  tell  his  people  that  if  it 
were  not  for  the  Church  which  he  de- 
nounces, in  any  thing  but  decent  language, 
there  would  not  be  a  Christian  temple  in 
the  city  of  Albany  to-day.  Let  me  ask  the 
members  of  the  "First  Reformed,"  if  they 
ever  studied  what  the  Catholic  Church  has 
done  to  uphold  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ 
throughout  the  world,  from  the  day  that 
our  Blessed  Lord  triumphed  over  the 
grave  to  the  present  time. 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  27 

In  the  earliest  age  of  Christianity,  as  far 
back  even  as  the  days  of  the  Apostles, 
there  were  proud  innovators,  who  pre- 
tended to  reform  the  infant  church.  The 
most  prominent  among  these  pretenders 
were  Simon  Magus,  Philetus,  Menander, 
Hymenus,  Mcholaites,  Cerinthus  and 
Ebion. 

In  the  second  century,  the  Yalentinian, 
Marican  and  Carpoeratian  heresies  arose. 
In  the  third  century,  Paul,  of  Samosata, 
was  excommunicated  for  denying  the  di- 
vinity of  Christ,  Sabellius  was  condemned 
for  denying  three  persons  in  one  God, 
Novatus  for  denying  the  forgiveness  of 
sins,  and  Millies  for  inculcating  the  doc- 
trim-  of  two  Deities. 

In  tin-  fourth  century,  arose  the  Donat 
i-t-  and  tin-  Arians,  who  denied  the  divin- 
ity of  Christ ;  and  the  Macedonians,  who 
opposed  that  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  the 
fifth  century,  the  Nestorians  preaehed 
againsl  the  doctrines  of  Christ's  divine  and 
human  nature;  and  the   Ehitychians,  fche 


-2S  THE   QUESTION    SOLVED. 

Pelagians  and  the  followers  of  Vigilantius, 
opposed  some  of  the  most  vital  doctrines 
of  the  Church. 

In  the  sixth  centmy,  the  Church  was 
obliged  again  to  go  forward  and  battle 
against  infidels,  heretics,  and  wily  politi- 
cians. The  great  St.  Benedict,  St.  Gildas, 
and  eight  others,  not  less  distinguished, 
confounded  and  put  to  flight,  by  the  sword 
of  logic  and  authority,  Aschepali,  the 
Jacobites,  the  Tri-theists,  and  numerous 
others.  In  this  century  the  Church  had  to 
contend  against  the  greatest  scourge  of 
all  —  the  rise  and  progress  of  Mahometan- 
ism.  In  the  seventh  century,  arose  the 
Monotholite  heretics  and  the  Paulicians ; 
and,  in  the  eighth,  the  detestable  Iconoclasts 
were  met  and  defeated,  by  the  seventh 
general  council,  as  were  Felix  and  Elip- 
hand,  who  taught  errors  in  the  west. 

The  ninth  century  saw  the  union  of  many 
heresies,  brought  about  by  Claudius  of  Tu- 
rin, while  Gotescale  labored  hard  to  estab- 
lish Predestinarianism.    It  was  at  this  time 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  29 

that  the  Greek  schism  originated,  and  the 
march  of  the  Mussulman  carried  the  sword 
of  persecution  not  only  through  France 
and  Sicily,  but  into  the  very  city  of  the 
Pontiffs.    The  Church,  in  the  tenth  century, 
was  much  distracted  by  civil  factions  at 
Rome,  as  well   as   by  the  misconduct  of 
many  of  her    most    prominent    children. 
The  eleventh  century   witnessed  another 
schism   in  the    Greek   church:    the    new 
Manicheans  turned  up  in  France,  and  were 
met  and  subdued,  as  were  their  predeces- 
sors, by  th<'  great  defenders  of  virtue  and 
religion.     Again,  in  the  twelfth  century, 
li'-resy  seemed  to   revive  in  a  variety  of 
forms,  and  Mahon  h 'tan  ism  once  more  thivaL 
ened  t<>  destroy  Christianity ;  but  God  de- 
fended  His  Holy  <  Shurch  by  some  of  the 
most  illustrious  Pontiffs  that  ever  sal   in 
Hie  chair  of  Peter.    The  great  doctors  who 
were  called  to  defend  the  faith   were  St. 
Bernard,    St.    Anselm,    Peter     Lombard, 
Peter,  abbot*  ofClughny  ;  8.  S.  Otto,  Nor 
bertj   Henry  of  Upsal,   Hugh  of   Lincoln, 


30  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

William  of  York,  and  St.  Malachi  of  Ire- 
land. These  holy  men  buckled  on  the 
armor  of  God,  and  repulsed  a  prolific 
growth  of  heresies  which  sprang  up  rank 
and  defiant,  such  as  those  of  Marcilius 
of  Padua,  Arnold  of  Brescia,  Henry  of 
Toulouse,  Peter  Bruise,  Peter  Waldo, 
the  Bogomilians,  Albigenses,  and  other 
branches  of  the  Manichean  family.  This  is 
the  corrupt  and  blood-thirsty  brood  that 
Dr.  Clark  undertook  to  defend  a  few  Sun- 
days ago,  before  an  audience  among  whom, 
we  would  venture  to  assert,  there  were  not 
half  a  dozen  persons  who  knew  any  thing 
at  all  of  the  true  history  of  these  common 
disturbers  of  the  public  peace,  nor  the 
errors  which  they  strove  so  hard  to  propa- 
gate. If  their  object  was  simply  to  worship 
God  in  their  own  way,  as  the  learned  Doc- 
tor declares,  they  might  have  enjoyed  that 
privilege  until  doomsday,  if  they  could 
live  so  long,  and  nobody  would  interfere 
with  them.  Instead  of  this,  they  wanted 
to  obtrude  their  erroneous  opinions  upon 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  31 

their  neighbors,  and  traduce  the  faith  of  a 
people  which  was  as  true  as  it  was  holy. 
They  became  so  arrogant  and  lawless  that 
the  strong  arm  of  the  civil  power  was  at 
last  compelled  to  interfere.  We  question 
very  much  if  Dr.  Clark,  himself,  knew 
what  he  was  talking  about ;  for,  if  he  was 
better  posted  in  the  science  of  Christian 
morals,  and  had  any  regard  for  the  pure 
life-giving  doctrine  of  salvation,  he  would 
never  attempt  to  palliate  or  defend  the 
crimes  and  practices  of  such  red-mouthed 
vilifiers  of  all  that  was  good  and  holy, 
true  and  imperishable  in  Gfod's  revelation 
to  mankind.  It  is  somewhat  singular  that 
he  should  revive  the  almost  forgotten  sub- 
j.Tt  of  tin-  Wa Menses  at  this  particular 
time.  Their  history  is  of  little  importance 
to  the  world  they  disgraced,  and  few  think 
it  worth  their  while  to  go  into  any  details 
concerning  them.  They  were  a  fanatical 
sect  at  best,  loose  in  morals,  and  subversive 
of  the  peace  and  happiness  of  social  life. 
None  but  a  man   of  evil   meaning,  who  is 


32  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

always  on  the  look-out  for  some  new  arrow 
to  pluck  from  his  quiver  of  falsehood  to 
wound  truth  in  a  tender  part,  would  up- 
hold the  errors  which  prudence  and  justice 
condemned  six  centuries  ago.  If  the  Doc- 
tor had  any  high  regard  for  his  people,  he 
would  never  have  introduced  the  "poor 
men  of  Lyons"  to  their  acquaintance. 
What  have  the  congregation  of  the  First 
Church  in  common  with  the  "  Humiliati  \ " 
They  believed  in  auricular  confession,  the 
Mass,  etc.  As  Dr.  Clark  does  not  believe 
in  such  essentials,  he  must  hold  to  their 
errors,  which  would  not  be  at  all  compli- 
mentary to  so  large  a  christian  as  our 
worthy  friend  of  the  two  steepled  light- 
house. There  is  not  a  well-organized  Chris- 
tian government  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 
that  would  tolerate  them  as  they  first 
showed  themselves  in  France.  We  would 
hate  to  accuse  the  Doctor  of  sanctioning  the 
proceedings  going  on  daily  in  Chicago,  Indi- 
ana and  other  parts  of  our  country ;  but  it 
looks  strange  to  say  the  least,  for  he  well 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  33 

knows  that  Peter  Waldo  and  his  friends 
held  it  to  be  a  cardinal  doctrine,  that  "di- 
vorce was  lawful  under  all  circumstances." 

In  the  thirteenth  century  Fratricelli  and 
Beguardi  with  other  heretics  arose,  with 
whose  gross  immoralities  no  pure  mind 
should  be  made  acquainted.  In  the  next 
century  the  hateful  Manichean  doctrine 
was  upheld  by  other  new  sects.  The  Lol- 
lards sprang  up  in  Germany  and  the  Wick- 
limtes  in  England,  whose  abominable  errors 
threatened  to  sap  not  only  religion  itself, 
but  the  foundations  of  civil  society.  The 
Church,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  witnessed 
many  errors  and  dissensions.  The  Hus- 
sites, Adamites  and  other  remnants  of  the 
immoral  Albigenses,  attacked  not  only  the 
church,  but  made  war  agatnsl  the  State 
also. 

Hi  if  it  was  reserved  for  the  sixteenth 
century  to  cap  the  climax  of  revolt  and 
opposition  to  the  See  of  Rome.  The  arch 
reformer  Luther  sounded  the  key  note  of 
rebellion,  broke  his  sacred  vows,  shook  off 


3-i  TIIE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

all  authority  in  matters  of  faith,  pretended 
to  unlock  a  chained  Bible,  and  lo  !  heresies 
swarmed  like  maggots  in  a  putrefying  car- 
cass. Out  crept  Lutherans,  Zwinglians, 
Anabaptists,  Puritans,  Socinians  and  the 
Family  of  Love.  The  haughty  monk  swore 
destruction  to  the  Church,  and  to  the 
natural  mind  she  stood  in  great  peril ;  but 
thanks  to  the  power  and  promise  of  Christ, 
the  barque  of  Peter  breasted  the  angry 
waves  of  error  and  deceit,  which  threatened 
to  engulf  her,  and  with  sails  set,  colors 
flying  and  the  cross  nailed  to  her  mast-head 
she  plowed  the  fierce  surges  of  hate  and 
discord,  until  she  anchored  safely  in  the 
haven  of  peace  and  love,  beneath  the 
shelter  of  the  Rock  of  Ages. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury the  sects  were  in  full  blast,  and, 
though  differing  widely  in  point  of  doctrine, 
they  united  under  the  common  name  of 
Protestants  —  their  aim  and  purpose  being 
the  destruction  of  the  Church.  But  the 
Lord  of  Hosts  thwarted  their  designs,  and 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  35 

like  the  builders  of  the  Tower  of  Babel, 
they  were  confounded  and  dismayed.  The 
Lutherans  divided  into  Diaphorists  and 
Abiaphorists  —  Calvinists  into  Gomarists 
and  Armenians — and  the  Angelicans  into 
four  divisions.  These  fought  among  them- 
selves and  became  cruel  and  revengeful  one 
against  the  other.  Atheism  and  Infidelity 
raised  their  defiant  crests  in  the  last  cen- 
tury, and  nowhere  did  they  make  such 
progress  as  in  Protestant  countries. 

And  now  we  are  near  the  close  of  the 
nine 'tenth  century,  and  the  names  of  the 
si'cts  arc  legion  —  it  would  be  impossible 
in  fact  to  enumerate  them.  They  remind 
(.lie  of  the  clouds  and  shadows  that  flit 
across  the  sky  on  an  autumnal  day  —  they 
are  forever  changing  and  dissolving — what 
is  true  to-day  is  false  to-morrow.  In  this 
State  alone,  there  are  eighty-seven  different 

its  I  What  a  pious  brood  !  They  are 
but  a  reflex  of*  what  St.  .John  saw  in  his 
vision,  when  the  fifth  angel  sounded  the 

trumpet.      "  And    I    saw   a  star    I'm  1 1    from 


36  THE  QUESTION  SOLVED. 

heaven  on  the  earth,  and  there  was  given 
to  him  the  key  of  the  bottomless  pit.  And 
the  smoke  of  the  pit  arose  as  the  smoke  of 
a  great  furnace,  and  the  snn  and  the  air 
•were  darkened  with  the  smoke  of  the  pit, 
and  from  the  smoke  of  the  pit  there  came 
out  locusts  npon  the  earth.  And  power 
was  given  to  them  as  the  scorpions  of  the 
earth  have  power." 


chap.  ni. 

OUB  BISHOPS  AXD  PRIESTS  FAITHFUL  TO  ZION  —  THE  ANNIVER- 
8ABY  OF  TOM  PAINE  —  CATHOLICS  AND  THE  WAS  OF  INDEPEND- 
ENCE—FALSE CHARGES  AGAINST  OUB  AMERICAN  BISHOPS  — 
LIBERTY  AND  THE  CHUBCH  —  PROTESTANTISM  IN  LEAGUE  Willi 
DESPOTISM— THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  CIVIL  POWKR  —  THE  REI.A- 
TIVE  POLITICAL  INFLUENCE  OF  CATHOLIC  AND  PROTESTANT 
MINISTERS  OVEB  THEIR  CONGRBGATIONS. 

TELL  me,  ye  defamers  of  God's  Holy 
Church,  that  her  bishops  and  priests  are 
opposed  to  human  liberty !  Falsehood, 
black  as  hell,  and  ugly  as  the  rotting  car- 
cass of  Henry  VIII!  How  dare  you  tempt. 
th'-  Lord  our  God!  But  the  good  Lord  is 
merciful  and  slow  to  anger,  and  he  permits 
yon  like  tares  to  grow  up  with  the  wheat 
until  the  harvest.  Our  bishops  and  priests 
are  not  only  sentinels  on  tin;  watch  towers 
of  Zion,  defending  the  gospel  of  salvation, 
but  in  every  age  from  the  day  that  St. 
Peter  stood  in  the  hall  of  Pudens,  the  Ro- 
man Senator,  denouncing  the  tyranny  of 
Rome,  and  proclaiming  mercy  ami  hope  to 
tip'  captive  and  the  slavi  —  the  same  privi- 
I     ea  to  the  bondman  and  the  free,  down  to 


38  THE   QUESTION"  SOLVED. 

this  very  hour,  they  have  always  stood  up 
for  the  rights  of  man,  not  as  the  infidel 
Paine  defines  them,  but  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
taught  and  commanded. 

And  here  let  me  say,  by  way  of  paren- 
thesis, that  the  followers  and  admirers  of 
Thomas     Paine     hold    their    blasphemous 
anniversaries    in    that    section    of   liberal 
Christianity  from  which  I  understand  Dr. 
Clark  emanated.      Year    after   year    they 
unblushingly    inculcate    impiety  and    un- 
belief—  making  a  mockery  of  Christ  and 
His  saints — pouring  forth   soul-destroying 
doctrines  like  streams  of  molten  lead  and 
burning  lava.     Notwithstanding  all  this,  Dr. 
Clark  remains  as  silent  and  as  dumb  as  the 
Pyramid  of  Cheops.    Why  should  he  offend 
men  of  wealth  and  distinction  belonging  to 
that  organization  %  It  is  modern  progress  that 
inspires  such  choice  spirits,  and  moreover, 
they  have  nearly  all  been  educated  in  the 
common  sclwols  of  New  England,  where  each 
in  turn  read  his  Bible  and  construed  its 
meaning  to  suit  his  own  taste  and  fancy. 


THE   QUESTION    SOLVED.  39 

Let  but  the  Catholic  Church  proclaim 
her  authority  in  matters  of  faith  and  dis- 
cipline, and  the  great  oracle  of  the  "two 
steepled  church"  would  awake  to  life,  as 
if  struck  by  a  wizard's  wand,  and  in  his 
fulminations  he  would  kick  seven  pulpits 
to  pieces,  and  bang  the  inwards  out  of  a 
dozen  Bibles. 

The  accusation  that  Catholicity  promotes 
despotism,  as  has  been  alleged  by  Clark 
&  Co.,  is  not  only  false,  but  highly  criminal. 
Catholics  form  no  mean  portion  of  the 
census  of  these  United  States;  Catholics 
first  discovered  this  continent  and  planted 
the  cross  on  its  virgin  soil.  They  took  an 
active  pari  in  the  early  warfare  of  the 
country,  and  no  part  of  Washington's 
army  were  braver  or  more  enthusiastic  in 
casting  off  the  yoke  of  Great  Britain  than 
they. 

Bui  Dr.  ( 'lurk  asks,  what  brought  Catho- 
lics here,  why  <lid  they  not  go  to  Mexico 
or  South  America  1  Such  a  question  would 
Bound    better   coining  from   the   lips  of  an 


40  THE  QUESTION  SOLVED. 

ignorant  know-nothing,  rather  than  from 
the  month  of  a  man  having  as  much  intel- 
ligence as  the  Doctor  pretends  to  possess. 
Did  George  Washington  and  his  compat- 
riots, in  1776,  ask  Lafayette,  Pulaski,  Count 
de  Grasse,  Kosciuszko,  De  Kalb,  and  the 
brave  Commodore  John  Barry  (who  was 
appointed  by  Washington  to  form  the  first 
naval  fleet  in  the  war  of  independence,  and 
who  never  struck  his  colors  to  a  British 
man  of  war),  what  brought  them  here,  why 
did  they  not  go  to  South  America  or 
Mexico?  No!  Washington's  idea  of  pat- 
riotism was  far  different  from  Dr.  Clark's. 
It  is  well  for  the  cause  of  American  free- 
dom that  such  men  as  the  hero  of  the 
North  Dutch  had  no  hand  in  its  early 
deliberations.  Washington  was  a  soldier, 
a  patriot,  and  an  honest  man ;  Clark  is 
neither.  This  creature  of  circumstance  has 
the  hardihood  to  assert  that  Catholicism  is 
incompatible  with  republican  institutions. 
Does  he  not  know  that  Catholic  republics 
existed  long   before  Columbus  discovered 


THE    QUESTION   SOLVED.  41 

America  i  Did  he  never  hear  of  San 
Marino,  founded  by  a  monk  more  than 
1500  years  ago,  and  the  little  republic  of 
Andorra  founded  by  a  bishop  in  the  ninth 
century?  The  people  of  these  territories 
remain,  even  to  this  day,  free  and  independ- 
ent, thoroughly  democratic  in  their  prin- 
ciples, well  educated,  happy,  and  contented 
in  their  mountain  homes. 

Some  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  were  Catholics — they  have 
occupied  positions  of  trust  in  almost  every 
department  of  the  government,  and  formed 
a  large  proportion  of  the  army  and  navy. 
Now,  will  these  calumniators  of  our  Catho- 
lic brethren  show  us  one,  who  proved  un- 
faithful to  the  trust  reposed  iii  him  I 
Among  them  all,  there  could  not  be  found 
one  Benedict  Arnold.  Can  Protestants 
Bay  as  much?  Our  late  war  lias  given 
additional  proofs  of  the  loyalty  of  our 
bishops,    although    Dr.    Clark    asserts   tiny 

are  ii<. t  and  cannol  be  citizens  of  the  Re- 
public, because  they  owe  allegiance  to  a 


42  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

foreign  power.  There  never  was  a  grosser 
libel  than  this  !  'Tis  true  that  our  ecclesi- 
astics do  not  take  an  active  part  in  politics, 
and  it  would  be  well  for  Protestant  minis- 
ters if  they  followed  their  example  in  this 
regard,  for  it  is  my  candid  belief,  that  they 
did  more  to  foment  strife  and  discord  in 
the  body  politic,  by  their  political  preach- 
ing, than  any  other  class  of  our  citizens. 
The  office  of  the  Catholic  priest  is  too 
sacred  —  his  labors  too  arduous,  to  allow 
him  much  time  to  devote  to  politics ;  but 
in  his  fealty  to  the  government  and  to  the 
laws  he  yields  to  none.  A  more  thorough 
American  than  the  late  Archbishop  Hughes 
never  breathed  the  air  of  human  liberty  — 
and  what  we  claim  for  him,  may  be  said  of 
all  our  bishops  throughout  the  Eepublic. 
We  cannot  do  better,  perhaps,  than  give  an 
extract  from  the  transactions  of  the  sixth 
provincial  council  of  Baltimore  in  1846, 
wherein  the  assembled  bishops  officially  de- 
clared as  follows : 

"It  is  unnecessary  for  us  to  tell  you, 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  43 

brethren,  that  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  of 
which  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  as  successor 
of  Peter,  has  received  the  keys,  is  not  of 
this  world ;  and  that  the  obedience  due  to 
the  Yicar  of  the  Saviour  is  in  no  way  in- 
consistent with  your  civil  allegiance,  youi 
social  duties  as  citizens,  or  your  rights  as 
men.  We  can  confidently  appeal  to  the 
whole  tenor  of  our  instructions,  not  only 
in  our  public  addresses,  but  in  our  most 
confidential  communications,  and  you  can 
bear  witness  that  we  have  always  taught 
you  to  render  to  Caesar  the  things  which 
are  Csesar's,  to  God  the  things  which  are 
God's.  Be  not,  then,  heedful  of  the  mis- 
representations of  foolish  men,  who,  unable 
to  combat  the  evidences  of  our  faith,  seek 
to  excite  unjust  prejudice  against  that  au- 
thority which  has  always  proved  its  firmest 
support.  Continue  to  practice  justice  and 
charity  towards  all  your  fellow-citfeens  — 
respect  the  magistrates  observe  the  laws  - 
shun  tumult  and  disorder,  as  free,  and  not 
as  having  liberty  as  a  cloak  for  malice,  but 
as  the  servants  of  God." 


44  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

The  bishops  of  the  fifth  council  of  Balti- 
more made  a  still  stronger  declaration,  in 
an  official  letter  to  the  Pope,  in  answer  to 
which  the  Holy  Pontiff  expressed  his  satis- 
faction thus  :  "  Your  letter  was  most  pleas- 
ing to  us."  The  extract  from  that  letter 
reads  thus  :  "They  spread  doubtful  rumors 
against  us  among  the  people ;  with  untir- 
ing efforts,  they  circulate  among  the 
ignorant  and  uninformed,  books,  which 
calumniate  our  most  holy  religion ;  they 
leave  no  means  untried  to  infect  with  errors 
their  Catholic  servants ;  and  ...  al- 
though our  forefathers  poured  out  their 
blood  like  water  for  the  defense  of  our 
liberties  against  a  Protestant  oppressor, 
they  yet  seek  to  render  us,  their  fellow- 
citizens,  suspected  by,  and  odious  to  the 
government,  by  falsely  asserting  that  we 
are  reduced  to  servitude  under  the  civil 
and  'political  jurisdiction  of  a  foreign 
prince,  namely,  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  and 
that  we  are  therefore  unfaithful  to  the  re- 
public!" 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  45 

Did  Dr.  Clark  take  any  pains  to  examine 
the  subject  well,  before  making  suck  a 
sweeping  and  savage  attack  on  the  allegi- 
ance of  our  American  biskops '?  It  must 
kave  been  a  part  of  malice,  and  not  a  want 
of  intelligence,  that  actuated  our  belligerent 
parson,  for  no  well  informed  man  in  our 
day  believes  that  the  Pope  of  Rome  claims 
any  obedience  from  his  children,  scattered 
as  they  are  all  over  the  earth  and  under  all 
forms  of  government,  other  than  what  they 
owe  him  in  spiritual  matters.  The  question 
of  papal  jurisdiction  was  long  since  dis- 
missed in  both  houses  of  the  British  parlia- 
ment. Mr.  Pitt  took  great  pains  to  investi- 
gate the  matter,  and  if  those  persons  who 
admire  Dr.  Clark  for  his  honesty,  will  look 
into  Butler's  Booh  of  the  Church,  page  387, 
if  they  do  not  conn?  to  the  conclusion,  that 
the  worthy  pastor  is  possessed  of  the  spirit 
of  lying,  Ihey  are  as  bad  as  he  is.  Mr.  Pitt's 
investigations  resulted  in  this:  "thai  th" 
Pope,  or  cardinals,  or  any  body  of  men,  or 
any  individual  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  caa 


46  THE   QUESTION"  SOLVED. 

not  absolve  or  dispense  with  his  Majesty' s 
subjects  from  their  oath  of  allegiance,  npon 
any   pretext   whatsoever."      There   is   not 
a  monarchial  government  in  Europe,  that 
believes  to  the  contrary  of  this.     How  comes 
it  then  that  our  brave,  intelligent  Americans 
of  the  Protestant  stripe,  allow  themselves  to 
be  frightened  by  such  a  bugbear,  which  has 
no  existence,  save  in  the  addled  brains  of 
their  religious  teachers  ?     If  Dr.  Franklin, 
when  minister  to  France  (and  we  take  it 
that  he  was  as  good,  as  pure  and  as  patri- 
otic  as   our  worthy  friend   of   the   "two- 
steepled  church,"    and   his   name  will  be 
cherished  as  a  benefactor  of  his  race  long 
after  Rufus  W.  Clark,  D.  D.,  shall  be  buried 
in  oblivion  and  rotted  out  of  memory),  had 
such    squeamish    fears    of   Rome    as    our 
modern  patriots,   would  he  have  solicited 
the  Pope's  Nuncio  to  appoint  a  Catholic 
bishop  for  America,  lest  American  Catholics 
might  be  dependent  on  an  English  bishop  ; 
and  recommended  his  friend  and  companion 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Carroll,  for  that  position  % 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  47 

Protestants  are  continually  accusing  the 
Church  of  intolerance,  and,  with  a  great 
flourish  of  trumpets,  appeal  to  the  Goddess 
of  Liberty  upon  all  occasions,  especially 
when  the  See  of  Rome  asserts  her  authority. 
As  freedom  from  restraint  is  always  agree- 
■able  to  the  carnal-minded,  audiences  ap- 
plaud and  accept  the  gilded  bait  regardless 
of  consequences,  never  stopping  to  inquire 
whether  their  orator  speaks  truth  or  false- 
hood. Let  me  tell  such  people,  that  truth 
is  only  safe  and  lasting  in  its  effects,  in  pro- 
portion as  it  maintains  its  authority  ;  for  the 
instant  it  compromises  with  falsehood  it 
becomes  hidden  and  lost  to  view,  and  error 
will  stalk  through  the  land  corrupting  the 
heart  of  man  and  outraging  common  sense. 
Christ  has  always  spoken  with  authority, 
so  have  the  Apostles  ami  their  successors. 
If  religious  truth  is  Left  to  the  caprice  of  tin' 
human  mind,  ongoverned  and  alone,  heresies 
must  oecessarily  arise,  which  the  history  of 
our  race  during  the  lasl  eighteen  centuries 
proves  conclusively.     Free  thought  without 


48  THE  QUESTION  SOLVED. 

a  governing  voice,  lias  sped  from  one  theory 
to  another  until  finally  it  ended  in  Panthe- 
ism or  Atheism.  It  is  a  thing  impossible  to 
reconcile  the  various  opinions  of  mankind 
on  a  single  article  of  faith  when  it  is  left  an 
open  question.  The  human  mind  being 
finite  and  limited  in  capacity,  it  cannot 
reason  beyond  a  certain  point  —  then  again, 
men  have  different  measures  of  intellectual 
strength  —  besides,  pride  and  selfishness  are 
too  powerful  ingredients  in  the  composition 
of  our  nature,  to  allow  truth  at  all  times  its 
natural  supremacy.  It  follows,  then,  if 
the  wisest  man  cannot  penetrate  into  the 
mysteries  of  his  own  being,  that,  to  make 
Mm  a  responsible  agent,  he  must  have  a 
supernatural  intelligence  bestowed  upon 
him,  else  he  is  compelled  to  grope  his  way 
through  the  maze  of  life,  unable  to  get  over 
his  perplexity.  How  necessary  therefore  it 
is  for  him  to  have  some  faithful  guide,  to 
point  out  the  way  that  leads  to  the  promised 
hind,  the  realms  of  truth  and  happiness, 
where  the  mists  of  error  and  ignorance  shall 


THE    QUESTION   SOLVED.  49 

pass  from  before  his  eyes,  and  he  be  ushered 
into  the  full  and  perfect  light  of  everlasting 
day. 

The  Catholic  Church,  from  the  first,  pro- 
mulgated and  maintained,  that  truth  was 
the  very  source  of  all  liberty,  and  that  man- 
kind, rich  and  poor,  black  and  white,  from 
the  king  to  the  beggar,  are  equal  in  the  sight 
of  God,  dear  to  His  heart,  created  by  His 
own  august  power,  and  destined  to  reign 
with  Him  forever  in  the  Kingdom  of  His 
glory.  Why,  then,  should  the  church  that 
claims  to  be  the  spouse  of  the  Most  High, 
desire  to  despise  and  degrade  his  dear  chil- 
dren in  the  flesh  ?  To  accuse  her  of  such  a 
crime,  is  a  base  and  wicked  fabrication  — 
the  Church  not  only  established  the  princi- 
]>!'•  of  •  •quality,  but  she  made  it  practical. 
The  child  of  the  poorest  Catholic  peasant 
« -in  :ispi i-f ■  to  the  Papal  chair  as  well  as  lie 
of  the  blood  royal.  I  have  seen  the  poor 
Fn-ncli  peasant,  with  his  wooden  shoes,  tread 
the  grand  aisles  of  Notre  Dame,  side  by  side 
with  the  proudest  and  most  wealthy  citizen 


50  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

of  la  belle  France — kneel  before  the  same 
altar  —  partake  of  the  same  sacraments,  and 
no  distinction  made  between  them.  What 
say  the  poor  people  of  the  First  Reformed 
Church  ?  All  superiority  is  left  outside  the 
doors  of  the  Catholic  Church ;  inside,  the 
king  and  the  beggar  are  brought  to  the  same 
level.  By  her  divine  philanthropy  she  ele- 
vates and  ennobles  the  lowest  creature  in 
society,  and  has  frequently  brought  kings 
and  princes  down  from  their  exalted  posi- 
tions, to  wash  the  feet  of  the  poor.  Is  a 
religion  that  teaches  such  noble  virtues  as 
these,  to  be  accused  of  favoring  despotism  ? 
If  an  oppressed  people,  under  a  cruel  and 
despotic  government,  wish  to  overthrow  the 
oppressor,  the  Church  permits  them  to  arm 
themselves  in  defense  of  their  liberties,  and 
shake  off  the  yoke  that  tyranny  imposes 
Upon  them  ;  but  in  case  they  are  too  feeble 
to  resist,  they  are  counseled  to  bear  pa- 
tiently the  wrongs  inflicted,  rather  than 
place  themselves  in  an  attitude  which  would 
surely  bring  destruction  upon  them.     The 


THE    QUESTION   SOLVED.  51 

Church  teaches  them  to  die  like  Christians, 
knowing  full  well  that  the  blood  of  martyrs 
is  destructive  to  tyranny. 

The  Church  is  not,  and  never  was,  hostile 
to  liberty ;  on  the  contrary,  she  is,  and  ever 
wa  s.  favorable  to  freedom.  The  doctrine  that 
"till  11  len  are  born  free  and  equal, "  was  held 
by  her  more  than  a  thousand  years  before 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  born.  As  early  as  the 
accession  of  Henry  I,  of  England,  an  ecclesi- 
astical council,  held  by  St.  Anselm,  de- 
nounced slavery  as  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
God.  The  great  synod  of  Armagh,  at  a  time 
when  Englishmen  were  in  a  state  of  bondage 
in  Ireland,  decreed  and  ordained  that  slavery 
must  be  abolished  in  thai  country;  and  it 
was  done.  That  land,  now  in  a  condition 
of  Blavery  herself,  lias  the  honor  of  the  first 
genera]  act  of  emancipation  known  in 
history. 

A  voice  thai  teaches  sovereigns  that  they 
should  be  the  dispensers  of  kindness  and 
benevolence  to  the  people  whom  tiny  go v- 
'iii,  that  they  must   reign  according  to  the 


52  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

spirit  and  letter  of  the  law,  and  that  there 
is  a  Judge  and  Prince  in  Heaven,  who  will 
one  day  bring  them  to  an  account  for  any 
wrong  done  to  the  subject,  cannot  be  in 
league  with  despotism. 

Let  us  now  investigate  the  Protestant  side 
of  this  question.  Did  not  Henry  VIII,  the 
head  and  chief  of  English  Protestants,  cause 
his  ministers  to  preach  the  divine  right  of 
kings,  and  obedience  to  royalty  ?  In  1540, 
a  miserable  party  of  sycophants  got  together, 
obtained  Parliamentary  sanction,  and  com- 
piled a  work  to  show  that  subjects  could 
not  withdraw  their  obedience  from  their  king, 
for  any  cause  whatever ;  that  the  people 
must  obey  all  the  laws,  proclamations,  pre- 
cepts and  commandments,  made  by  their 
princes  and  governors  ;  that  they  must  not 
draw  their  swords  against  their  prince  for 
any  cause ;  nor  against  any  other  person 
without  his  leave.  This  work  was  written 
by  those  who  called  themselves  Christian 
teachers.  Archbishop  Cranmer,  at  the 
coronation   of   Edward  VI,   declared   that 


THE    QUESTION   SOLVED.  53 

his  right  to  govern  did  not  depend  npon 
any  engagement  made  at  his  coronation ; 
that  his  crown  was  given  him  by  Almighty 
God,    and   could    not,    by  any   failure    in 
his  administration,    be   forfeited.     Bonner, 
in  1549,    declared  in  a  sermon  at  Paul's 
Cross,     that     any    resistance    to    royalty 
would  certainly  bring  eternal  perdition  on 
the  rebel ;  that  all  such  as  rebelled  against 
their  prince,  no  matter  the  cause,  get  unto 
them  damnation !    "Those,"  said  he,  "that 
resist  the  high  power,  resist  the  ordinance 
of  God;  and  he  that  dies  in  rebellion,  by 
the  words  of  God,  is  utterly  lost,  body  and 
soul."    Bonner  was  obliged  to  preach  this 
doctrine,  else  lose  his  head  or  his  diocese. 
The  difference  between  him  and  a  Catholic 
bishop,   would  simply  be  this:  the  Latter 
would  forfeit  both,  sooner  than  give  utter- 
ance to  such  a  doctrine,  while  the  former 
would  preach  any  thing  prescribed  to  him, 
rather  than   lose  either.     In  the  Hook  of 

Homilies,  the  "righl  divine"  is  maintained, 
and  in  the  tenth  sermon  of  the  first  hook, 

5* 


54:  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

Elizabeth  caused  the  same  doctrine  to  be 
preached  after  the  following  manner :  "The 
high  power  and  authority  of  kings,  with 
their  making  of  laws,  judgments,  and  offi- 
ces, are  the  ordinances  not  of  man,  but  of 
God."  And  further,  "it  is  not  lawful,  for 
inferiors  and  subjects  in  any  cause,  to  resist 
and  stand  against  the  supreme  powers;" 
and  again,  ' '  this  is  so  manifest,  it  is  an  in- 
tolerable ignorance,  madness,  and  wicked- 
ness, for  subjects  to  make  any  murmuring, 
rebellion,  resistance,  commotion  or  insurrec- 
tion, against  this  dear  and  dread  sovereign, 
lord  and  king  (Elizabeth),  ordained  and  ap- 
pointed of  God's  goodness,  for  their  com- 
modity, peace,  and  quietness."  This  was 
the  kind  of  doctrine  preached  and  backed 
up  by  a  few  texts  of  Scripture,  from  that 
period  to  the  time  of  Queen  Anne ;  and  so 
the  Protestant  Church  of  England  taught  in 
the  reign  of  Charles  II,  and  of  James.  In 
1622,  a  man  named  Knight  attempted  to  in- 
culcate principles  differing  from  the  above, 
when  a  law  was  passed  and  put  strictly  ir 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  00 

force,  and  the  graduates  of  Oxford  had  to 
make  oath,  that  "in  no  case  is  it  lawful  to 
use  force  against  the  sovereign."  The  book 
from  which  poor  Knight  obtained  his  proofs 
was  ordered  to  be  burnt  publicly  before  the 
two  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 
Mainwaring  was  made  bishop  by  Charles  I, 
for  holding  to  the  doctrine  of  the  "right 
divine,"  and  the  Protestant  Church  in  con- 
vocation adopted  his  views,  adding,  that 
"under  the  most  fearful  penalties,  the  sub- 
ject must  give  tribute,  aid,  and  subsidy,  and 
all  manner  of  support  to  kings,  by  the  law 
of  God,  and  of  nature,  and  of  nations,  in 
all  cases,  and  that  the  subject  has  not  so 
good  a  right  to  his  individual  property  :is 
the  king  1ms  to  it."  The  House  of  Com- 
mons, however,  baying  ;i  higher  apprecia- 
tion of  justice,  condemned  the  canons  after 
the  church  had  passed  them.  This  ad 
brought  the  <  lommons  in  direct  antagonism 
to  the  church  and  the  king;  until  at  last 
the  Commons  triumphed,  and  brough.1  the 
king's  head  to  the  block.     Anarchy  and  con 


56  THE    QUESTION   SOLVED. 

fusion  became  the  order  of  the  day  in  Pro- 
testant England,  and  the  blood  that  was 
shed  by  contending  factions  was  fearful  to 
contemplate,  and  although  Cromwell  dis- 
solved the  long  parliament  and  seized  the 
reins  of  power,  the  "right  divine"  still  as- 
serted its  authority.  Tillotson  wrote  a  letter 
to  the  unfortunate  Lord  Russell,  previous 
to  his  execution,  informing  him  that  non- 
resistance  was  the  doctrine  of  all  Protestant 
churches. 

Let  us  contrast  such  teachings,  with  what 
the  Church  prescribed,  and  which  the  learned 
doctor  willfully  ignores.  Does  he  not  know 
that  the  doctrine,  that  "the  people  are  the 
legitimate  source  of  civil  authority,"  was  of 
Catholic  origin  %  Let  him  turn  over  the 
pages  of  English  history,  and  he  will  find 
the  Holy  Pontiff  proclaiming  the  decision, 
which  afterwards  became  a  law,  as  far  back 
as  the  time  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  "that 
unless  the  ruler  properly  discharge  his 
duties  towards  the  people  of  his  realm,  he 
shall  not  be  allowed  the  name  of  king,  even 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  57 

by  courtesy."  The  Catholic  Judge  Bracton, 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  III,  says,  "he  is  a 
king  when  he  reigns  well,  but  a  tyrant  when 
he  oppresses  the  people. ' '  In  another  place, 
this  learned  advocate  proclaims,  that  "when 
the  king  ceases  to  govern  according  to  law, 
he  is  not  a  king ;  he  is  a  tyrant,  and  a  min- 
ister of  the  devil."  Both  Edward  and 
Bichard  II  were  deposed  by  a  Catholic 
parliament,  for  misgovernment  and  injustice 
to  the  people.  Fortescue,  Catholic  Chan- 
r.Uor  of  Henry  VI,  publicly  declared  that 
"a  king  was  placed  by  the  people  to  defend 
the  laws  of  his  subjects,  their  bodies  and 
their  goods."  Thus  the  Catholic  Church 
;ni<l  ( '.iilmlic  doctrine  ever  stood  between 
the  people  and  their  tyrants.  Does  not  the 
minister  of  the  "  two  stapled  church"  know 
w<ll  thai  Magna  Charta,  the  basis  of  Eng- 
lish tights  and  liberties,  was  wrung  from 
King  John  by  Catholics,  the  priests  and 
bishops  a1  their  head?  They  tanghl  the 
people  their  civil  rights,  and  took  care  thai 
the  king  dnly  observed   his  oath  of  office. 


58  THE    QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

The  canons  of  the  Church,  in  fact,  formed 
the  basis  of  the  civil  law  of  England.  The 
clergy  taught  the  people  that  excessive 
taxation  was  wrong,  and  that  taxation  with- 
out representation  was  wicked,  and  ought 
to  be  resisted.  In  1223,  they  caused  Henry 
III  to  confirm  these  decisions,  and  in  after 
years  when  the  same  king  tried  to  repeal 
the  great  charter,  the  clerical  party  defeated 
his  efforts,  and  maintained  the  rights  of  the 
people.  It  was  Hubert,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  that  declared  the  crown  to  be 
elective,  so  that  it  was  a  decision  of  the 
people  that  placed  John  upon  the  throne. 
When  he  afterwards  attempted  to  crush  the 
barons,  and  quarrel  with  the  clergy,  Cardi- 
nal Langdon  produced  the  old  charter, 
forced  the  king  to  desist  from  violating  the 
law,  and  thus  protected  the  subject  in  his 
legal  rights.  The  clergy  were  the  expound- 
ers of  the  law ;  they  explained  them  to  the 
people  twice  a  year  in  their  grand  cathe- 
drals. The  Church,  in  all  ages  and  in  all 
countries,  protected  the  poor  in  their  civil 


THE    QUESTION   SOLVED.  59 

rights,  and  for  this  she  became  the  object 
of  fear  and  jealousy.  Persecutions  had 
been  raised  against  her  faithful  ministers,  in 
the  reign  of  William  the  Conqueror,  William 
Rufus,  and  Henry  I,  away  down,  in  fact,  to 
the  wicked  revolt  under  Henry  VIII,  that 
monster  of  iniquity.  These  were  the  days 
of  confessors  and  martyrs,  who  yielded  up 
their  lives  for  the  sake  of  God  and  His 
poor  —  glorious  men,  who  dared  to  stand 
before  king  and  baron  and  battle  for  the 
right. 

The  Church  does  not  administer  secular 
governments,  nor  does  she  interfere  with 
them,  further  than  to  declare  the  law  which 
all  secular  governments  are  bound  to  obey, 
on  peril  of  contravening  the  law  of  God. 
The  church  claims  to  define  the  spiritual 
order  upon  which  the  State  should  be 
founded,  and  opposes  no  revolution  in  favor 
of  sound,  religious  principles.  She  wages 
war  againsl  unlaw  fnl  means  to  overturn  any 
existing  government.  With  us  here  in  free 
America,  it  seems  the  height  of  folly  to  sup- 


60  THE   QUESTION-   SOLVED. 

pose  for  a  second  that  the  Church  would 
undertake,  at  this  age  of  her  existence,  to 
accomplish  for  the  United  States,  what  she 
never  yet  dreamed  of  in  connection  with  any 
other  government  under  the  sun.  As  far  as 
we  know,  the  Church  finds  no  fault  with  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  It  per- 
mits us  the  freedom  of  our  religious  opin- 
ions, and  the  practices  of  our  faith,  the 
same  as  it  does  all  others.  Have  we  not  a 
right,  therefore,  to  promulgate  our  religious 
principles,  by  lawful  means,  as  far  as  we 
can,  in  order  to  save  souls,  which  is  the 
chief  object  of  the  Church's  mission,  as  well 
as  to  save  society  from  final  destruction  ? 
We  do  not  desire,  nor  do  we  strive  for  politi- 
cal power  as  Protestants  do,  to  bring  about 
this  happy  result :  it  is  Protestants  who  are 
aiming  for  State  power,  to  control  the  relig- 
ious opinions  of  Catholics;  but  this  they 
never  can  accomplish,  let  them  whine,  rant, 
and  intrigue  as  they  will.  The  die  is  cast ! 
There  is  a  strong  anti-Christian  power  in  the 
body  politic,   which  will  suffer    no    state 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  61 

religion  ;  and  even  if  there  was  not,  the 
sects  themselves  could  never  agree  upon  a 
State  religious  creed.  Such  tools  as  Dr. 
Clark,  who  invent  lies  as  fast  as  Dexter  can 
trot,  and  draw  conclusions  from  them  as 
quickly,  are  the  worst  enemies  to  civil  soci- 
ety. With  pompous  declamation,  and  crafty, 
lying  essays,  they  warn  the  State  against 
the  grasping  nature  of  the  Church — tell  the 
people  they  are  in  imminent  danger  of 
losing  their  liberties,  and  that  Catholics  are 
threatening  to  tumble  down  their  free  insti- 
tutions in  their  faces.  To  show  the  lying 
propensities  of  such  scribblers,  we  would 
only  refer  the  reader  to  an  article,  or  rather 
a  string  of  falsehoods,  published  in  Pv(- 
hunts  Magazine  for  July  of  last  year. 
They  were  ably  refuted  by  that  high-toned 
periodical,  Hk*  Catholic  World,  in  the 
August  number,  which  every  Protestant, 
haying  any  regard  for  truth,  should  procure 
and  study  for  themselves,  in  order  to  see 
how  their  religious  teachers  deceive  them. 
Notwithstanding  the  aforementioned  state- 


62  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

ments  were  shown  to  be  untrue,  Putnam1  s 
Magazine  took  no  notice  of  the  refutation  ; 
neither  did  the  Protestant  press,  which  had 
given  the  article  wide  publication.  No,  no  ; 
they  knew  it  was  a  lie  when  they  published 
it,  and  they  wanted  to  keep  their  readers 
still  in  the  dark.     Protestantism  was  born 

of  a  lie,  and  has  been  sustained  by  lying 
ever  since. 

Instead  of  Catholics  aiming  at  political 
power  to  destroy  Protestant  institutions, 
the  boot  should  be  placed  on  the  other  leg. 
We  need  only  refer  to  the  late  know-nothing 
movement,  the  Protestant  Association,  and 
the  American  Christian  Union.  Protestant- 
ism has  been  always  coqueting  with  politi- 
cal power,  as  has  been  proved  over  and 
over  again,  and  if  the  real  sentiments  of  the 
Evangelicals  were  known,  they  would  prefer 
a  scion  of  the  House  of  Brunswick  for  their 
ruler,  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
so  as  to  be  able  to  wield  the  throne  of  State, 
against  the  altar  of  the  Church.  Listen  to 
the  Christian  Intelligencer :  "The  religious 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  63 

liberty  which  places  Catholics  on  an  equal 
footing  in  the  political  order  with  Protest- 
ants, may  be  discovered  to  be  a  great  mis- 
take." Is  not  that  sentiment  alone  antago- 
nistic to  the  great  American  doctrine  of  equal 
rights  ?  They  persist  in  forcing  lis  to  send 
our  children  to  be  educated  in  schools  con- 
trary to  our  dearest  wishes,  and  because  we 
object  on  religious  grounds,  they  call  us  a 
priest-ridden,  intriguing  class,  who  are  plan- 
ning the  destruction  of  their  free  institutions. 
Such  declamation  is  all  bosh,  gentlemen, 
and  you  know  it — we  cherish  and  respect 
free  institutions  as  well  as  you  do,  and  better 
too.  We  love  institutions  that  the  truth 
makes  free  —  you  love  those  which  propa- 
gate error,  which  in  the  course  of  time  \\  i  1 1 
prove  destructive  to  every  Godlike  gifl  in 
man.  Reject  the  wholesome  admonitions 
of  the  Church  of  Rome,  which  is  the  living, 
breathing,  active  Church  of  .Jesus  Christ  on 
earth,  the  uncompromising  enemy  to  infidel- 
ity and  despotism  of  every  shade  and  hue, 
tli*-  nurse  of  virtue,  the  patron  of  chastity, 


64  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

the  fountain  of  inspiration,  and  the  mother 
of  devotion  ;  stay  her  progress  and  you  will 
hasten  down  the  stream  of  immorality  and 
corruption,  like  drift-wood  to  the  open  sea. 
We  are  frequently  taunted  from  the  pulpit 
and  by  the  sectarian  press,  that  we  go  as 
enemies  to  the  polls  ;  meaning  thereby  that 
Catholics  act  as  a  unit,  in  securing  legisla- 
tion hostile  to  Protestants.  There  is  not  a 
word  of  truth  in  such  a  statement ;  on  the 
contrary,  there  are  but  lew  of  our  clergy,  as 
far  as  I  know,  who  take  any  active  part  in 
politics  beyond  depositing  a  ballot ;  nor  do 
these  all  vote  alike  —  some  belong  to  one 
class  of  politics,  and  some  to  another  ;  the 
only  difference  between  themselves  and 
Protestant  ministers  in  this  respect  is,  that 
the  former  never  join  a  fanatical  party.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  laymen ;  they  do 
not  go  to  the  polls  as  Catholics,  they  go  as 
freemen  and  the  only  enemies  they  meet 
there,  as  a  rule,  are  Protestants,  who  lay  in 
wait  for  the  poor  laborer,  to  whom  they  hold 
out  bribes,  to  tempt  his  poverty  and  corrupt 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  65 

his  principles.  The  Protestant  Dominie  has 
ten  times  more  control  over  the  members  of 
his  congregation  than  the  priest  has  over 
his.  The  former  keeps  dinging  all  the  time 
into  the  ears  of  his  hearers,  both  in  the  long- 
prayer,  and  the  prosaic  sermon,  till  he 
makes  a  nose  of  wax  of  by  far  the  majority 
of  them ;  while  the  poor  priest  allows  his 
flock  to  act  their  own  pleasure,  in  almost  all 
cases.  I  have  seen  it  stated  not  long  since, 
that  the  Christian  World  (which  is  the 
month-piece  of  the  American  and  Foreign 
Christian  Union),  urges  it  to  be  "the  duty 
of  all  Protestants,  to  unite  at  the  polls,  and 
vote  down  everything  that  tended  to  ad- 
vance the  interests  of  the  Catholic  Church." 
The  whole  history  of  Protestantism  proves 
its  despotic  tendency  —  it  tries  to  lord  it 
ov<t  ( 'at  holies  wli-  -r<-  it  lias  power,  and  when? 
it  has  not.  In  this  country,  when  a  just 
man  urges  forward  a  Catholic  claim,  in  the 
halls  of  legislation,  he  is  abused  and  decried 
for  giving  aid  to  the  enemy.  The  sectarian 
press    and    the    bigoted    pulpit   sing   out 


GO  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

"enemy  :it  the  polls!'1  "invasion  of  Prot- 
estant rights  ! '  and  the  majority  are  let 
loose  once  more  on  the  Catholic  trail.  It  is 
to  be  regretted  that  Catholics  do  not  take  a 
lesson  from  Protestants  and  act  with  more 
concert  in  political  affairs.  They  have  as 
much  right  to  demand  legislation  for  the 
protection  of  their  religion  as  Protestants 
have.  To  this  equality  Protestants  object — 
they  want  to  rule.  They  claim  all  privileges 
from  the  State,  and  wonder  why  Catholics 
are  even  tolerated.  What  arrogance  !  All 
we  ask,  as  Catholics,  is  equal  rights  with 
other  denominations  before  the  State.  We 
claim  no  more,  nor  shall  we  be  satisfied  to 
take  less,  let  the  First  Dutch  say  what  it 
will.  When  I  hear  a  Protestant  minister 
injuring  his  lungs  in  the  praise  of  religious 
freedom,  I  feel  like  cutting  off  his  coat-tails 
so  that  every  true  lover  of  Liberty  could  get 
a  decent  kick  at  him.  His  voice  is  like  the 
song  of  the  siren,  that  charms  but  to  devour. 


CHAP.  IV. 

PBOTESTANT  PBKACHEBS  AND  THE  INQUISITION  —  THE  INQUISITION 
AND  THE  WALDENSES-ST.  DOMINIC  AND  THE  INQUISITION  — 
SPAIN  AND  THE  INQUISITION  —  POPE  SIXTUS  IV  AND  THE  INQUISI- 
TION— PASCAL—  HOME  THE  JEWISH  PARADISE. 

DR.  CLARK,  in  common  with  all  other 
Protestant  preachers,  scarcely  ever  con- 
el  udes  a  discourse,  without  interlarding  it 
with  the  Inquisition.  It  is  Inquisition  in  the 
beginning,  Inquisition  in  the  middle,  and 
Inquisition  at  the  end,  until  their  hearers, 
like  themselves,  get  Inquisition  on  the  brain. 
We  are  no  apologist  for  any  institution  that 
tyrannizes  over  the  conscience  of  man, 
neither  would  we  willingly  submit  to  have 
opinions,  distinctive  of  religion  and  civil 
polity  thrust  upon  us.  Personally,  I  regrel 
the  Church  having  any  thing  to  do  with  the 
Inquisition,  and  yet,  when  I  consider  the  age 
in  which  it  was  instituted  in  Spain,  the 
circumstances  which  called  it  forth,  whal  the 
Church  had  to  suffer  from  heresy  for  eight 
centuries    previous,    and    the   condition     of 


G8  THE    QUESTION   SOLVED. 

society,  I  do  not  wonder  that  a  check  was 
put  on  the  fomenters  of  strife  in  the  State, 
and  discord  in  the  Church.  It  seems  hard 
to  take  the  life  of  a  human  creature,  to 
torture,  or  throw  him  in  prison,  but  we  have 
examples  sufficient  to  prove  that  mercy  has 
a  limit,  even  with  the  Almighty.  We  well 
know  that  God  destroyed  all  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth,  save  Noah  and  his  family  ;  and 
the  Old  Testament  is  full  of  examples,  where 
the  chosen  of  the  Lord  had  put  thousands 
to  the  sword.  Whole  tribes  and  nations 
were  disinherited,  and  cities  destroyed  by  fire 
from  heaven,  on  account  of  man' s  insubordi- 
nation, his  infidelity  and  his  crimes.  Prot- 
estants will  have  it  that  the  Inquisition  was 
the  work  of  the  Church.  Now,  this  is  a  lie ! 
They  also  maintain  that  it  was  the  ecclesi- 
astical tribunal  that  passed  the  penalty  of 
the  law.  This  also  is  a  lie !  Dr.  Clark  told 
his  people,  in  his  lecture  on  the  Waldenses, 
that  they  were  condemned  to  death,  by  the 
priests,  for  opinion's  sake.  This  is  a  pal- 
pable lie,  and  it  is  a  great  wonder  it  did  not 


THE   QUESTIOX   SOLVED.  69 

choke  him  when  he  gave  it  utterance !  Prot- 
estants also  insist  that  St.  Dominic  was  its 
founder,  and  the  good  saint  has  been  con- 
tinually the  object  of  abuse  and  condemna- 
tion, when  it  is  a  well  established  fact  that 
he  never  opposed  heresy  with  any  other 
weapons  than  prayer,  patience,  and  good 
counsel.  It  is  not  exactly  known  when  or 
where  the  Inquisition  was  first  established  ; 
but  this  much  is  certain,  that  in  its  first 
operations  it  was  mild  and  salutary,  and 
continued  so  until  the  civil  power  made  use 
of  it  for  its  own  protection.  It  was  not  until 
the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century  that 
its  rigors  were  fairly  put  into  practice.  It 
is  unjust,  therefore,  to  charge  St.  Dominic 
or  any  other  ecclesiastic  with  either  its  sever- 
ity or  its  abuse  The  part  that  was  intrusted 
to  that  order,  long  after  the  death  of  St. 
Dominic,  was  the  preaching  part.  Judaism 
had  crept  into  Spain  in  or  about  the  fifteenth 
century.  The  wealth  and  intermarriage  of 
the  Jews  with  many  of  the  noble  families 
of   the   realm,    especially   those  connected 


70  TIIE    QUESTION   SOLVED. 

with  the  government,  had  made  them  a 
formidable  power  in  the  political  status  of 
the  country.  Add  to  this  the  influence 
arising  from  the  remains  of  Mahometanism, 
which  had  already  cursed  the  land  with  its 
despotic  sway,  and  deluged  its  fertile  prov- 
inces with  the  blood  of  its  own  people.  The 
country  was  thus  jeopardized,  by  Judaism 
on  the  one  hand  and  Islamism  on  the  other. 
The  noble  Castilians  could  not  stand  this 
encroachment  any  longer — a  jealousy,  deep 
and  bitter,  sprang  up  —  the  Cortes  demanded 
strong  measures  against  the  Jews — the 
provinces  flew  to  arms,  and  a  most  terrible 
slaughter  was  the  result.  The  political 
horizon  grew  thick  and  murky,  thunder- 
bolts were  pent  up  in  the  surrounding  gloom, 
when  Ferdinand  thought  it  high  time  to  put 
a  stop  to  the  impending  danger,  which 
threatened  the  country,  and  the  Inquisition 
was  accordingly  called  into  operation. 
Isabella  opposed  the  severe  measures,  but 
the  king  prevailed,  and  the  Inquisition  was 
put  in  full  force.     La  Maistre  says,  that  "it 


THE    QUESTION   SOLVED.  71 

is  a  great  error  to  suppose  that  we  can  get 
rid  of  a  powerful  enemy  by  merely  check- 
ing him  ;  prudence  tells  us  that  we  should  at 
least  drive  him  into  his  intrenchments. ' '  The 
Spanish  Inquisition  was  not  an  ecclesiastical 
instrument  to  punish  men  for  conscience 
Bake,  it  was  purely  royal;  and  any  odium 
attached  to  it  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  minis- 
ters of  the  crown,  and  not  to  the  ministers 
of  the  Church. 

I  do  not  know  how  Dr.  Clark,  or  any 
man  like  him,  can  draw  such  horrid  pictures 
of  the  Inquisition,  and  then  charge  them  to 
Catholics,  unless  he  is  a  close  student  of  the 
infidel  Voltaire,  who,  in  his  hatred  towards 
Christianity,  ridiculed  and  falsified  every 
thing  connected  with  its  progress  and  pro- 
tection. The  imaginations  ol  a  people  arc 
easily  worked  up  by  a  crafty  teacher  or  a  dis- 
sembling preacher,  so  that  they  will  believe 
the  niosi  absurd  story  against  Catholics, 
because  their  minds  are  already  made  up  on 
tJi.ii  score  -their  cars  being  used  to  such 
hiii-  calumnies  from  their  earliest  infancy. 


72  THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

In  conversation  with  one  of  Dr.  Clark's 
parishioners  a  few  days  ago,  he  would  have 
ii  that  the  priests  put  heretics  on  the  spit 
and  turned  them  before  great  fires  —  broiled 
them  on  gridirons,  etc.  Was  there  ever 
credulity  like  this  ?  No  well  educated  man, 
unless  he  should  be  a  shameless  profligate, 
and  breathing  the  air  of  infamy,  would  utter 
such  scandalous  abominations.  But  there 
are  some  dupes  so  blinded  by  prejudice  that 
they  will  swallow  any  thing  and  every  thing 
no  matter  how  absurd,  should  its  aim  be  to 
throw  obloquy  on  our  holy  religion  and  its 
ministers. 

A  couple  of  summers  ago  I  met  a  deacon 
of  one  of  the  Presbyterian  churches  of 
Rochester — we  boarded  at  the  same  hotel, 
and  had  many  conversations  on  one  subject 
and  another.  In  the  main  he  seemed  pretty 
well  informed,  but  on  the  subject  of  religion 
his  knowledge  appeared  very  limited.  In 
relating  to  him  a  story,  to  illustrate  the 
tenacity  of  Irish  Catholics  to  the  faith 
Jesus  Christ,  during  the  invasion  of  Crom 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  73 

well,  lie  looked  at  me  with  astonishment, 
and  exclaimed,  "Well,  that's  the  first  time 
that  I  ever  heard  that  Catholics  believed  in 
the  Lord  Jesns  Christ!"  I  looked  at  him 
with  double  surprise,  and  asked  him  if  he 
truly  meant  it,  and  he  replied  in  the  affirm- 
ative. I  went  forthwith  and  procured  him 
a  three-penny  catechism,  and  requested 
him  to  read  it.  At  first  he  objected,  for  he 
did  not  suppose  it  contained  any  thing  good. 
I  prevailed  upon  him,  however,  to  look  it 
over  at  his  leisure.  I  saw  him  next  morning 
after  breakfast  —  he  had  read  it  some  time 
during  the  night,  and  approached  me  with 
the  book  in  his  hand  saying,  "I  don't  know, 
after  all  that  we  differ  much  on  the  main 
points  of  Christian  doctrine."  He  promised 
me  he  would  investigate  the  subject  more 
thoroughly,  and  seemed  mucli  mortified  at 
his  ignorance  of  Catholic  dogma. 

This  is  precisely  the  case  with   thousands 

of  well  meaning  Protestants     1  hey  a  re  kept 

in    ignorance  of  tin*  faith   of  Catholics,    and 

their  minds  are  poisoned  by  their  ministers. 

7 


74  THE    QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

their  literature  and    their  traditions.      An 
Ann  flrican  may  be  excused  for  his  ignorance  of 
the  religious  belief  of  Chinese  Tartary,  or  the 
South  Sea  Islands,  but  to  be  unacquainted 
with  the  general  outlines  of  Catholic  faith, 
seems  to  me  very  singular,  to  say  the  least. 
They  have  heard  more  and  know  less  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  than  any  other  civilized 
people  on  the  globe.     Their  ministers  will  be 
held  to  a  strict  account  before  the  judgment 
seat  of  God  for  all  this  ignorance.     Their 
ministry  is  an  office  of  prejudice,  hate  and 
rancor,  with  which  they  fill  the  breasts  of 
those  over  whom  they  exercise  an  influence. 
In  that  dreadful  day  when  they  are  arraigned 
before  the  face  of  the  great  Judge,  and  as 
they  stand  before  Him,  in  all  the  ugliness 
of  the  grave,  chattering  blasphemy  against 
the  Almighty,  while  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  their  dupes  shall  come  up  in  judg- 
ment  against   them,   howling,  in  wild  con- 
fusion,  "Ye  teachers  of  perdition,  we  have 
been   damned    through    your    deceptioC 
the  Lord  will  hurl  them  from  His  presence. 


I 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  75 

never  more  to  see  the  light  of  His  counte- 
nance. 

We  challenge  Dr.  Clark,  or  any  other  per- 
son, to  point  to  any  Catholic  bishop  or 
priest  that  ever  took  the  life  of  an  individual. 
They  preach  rather  mercy  and  forgiveness, 
clemency  and  justice,  throughout  the  earth — 
they  but  too  often  yielded  up  their  own  lives 
as  a  living  sacrifice,  for  the  sake  of  God's 
poor  and  the  honor  of  religion.  The  Catho- 
lic Church,  kind  mother  that  she  is,  views 
mankind  in  a  different  light  from  those  who 
libel  her  —  she  looks  upon  men  as  the  image:. 
of  that  God  whom  she  worships  and  adores, 
for  well  she  knows  that  they  all  have  been 
ransomed  by  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
whether  they  belong  to  the  household  of 
faith  or  not. 

1 1  was  principally  for  this  reason  thai  Pope 
Sixtua  IV  allowed  ecclesiastics  to  act  as 
inquisitors,  Lesl  any  Individual  should  have 
been  unjustly  sentenced  by  the  civil  magia 
trat'--.  In-,  dark,  iii  referring  to  Pascal, 
^Kok  good  care  not  to  mention  any  opinion 


76  THE    QUESTION   SOLVED. 

that  the  great  man  held  favorable  to  the 
Church.  In  one  of  his  provincial  letters,  he 
s:ivs,  "the  Church  holds  the  effusion  of 
blood  in  such  abhorrence  that  she  deems 
all  who  abet,  promote  and  effect  a  capital 
condemnation  of  a  fellow  being,  although  it 
be  accompanied  by  every  religious  consid- 
eration, to  be  disqualified  from  officiating  at 
her  altars." 

If  the  Church  was  given  to  persecution 
and  the  destruction  of  human  life,  as  has 
been  charged  upon  her,  how  comes  it  that 
she  never  yet  perpetrated  a  deed  of  blood,  for 
opinions'  sake,  in  that  province  which  she 
legitimately  calls  her  own?  There  was  not 
a  country  in  all  Europe  where  the  Jew  was 
so  well  protected  in  his  rights,  as  in  the 
Papal  States.  In  contradistinction  to  the 
annoyances  to  which  they  were  subjected  in 
all  other  lands  in  those  days,  they  used  to 
designate  Rome  as  the  Jewish  Paradise. 
If  any  fault  could  be  found  with  the  paral 
government,  it  should  be  attributed  rather 
to  its  mildness  and  humanity  in  the  exerciJB 


V 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  77 

of  its  authority  than  otherwise.  A  more 
just  and  paternal  code  of  political  ethics 
never  was  adopted  by  a  civilized  people, 
than  was  that  of  Rome,  until  English 
fomenters  of  rebellion  and  their  infidel  allies 
took  up  their  abode  there,  hatching  sedition 
and  revolt.  It  was  there,  among  an  unsus- 
pecting people,  that  these  villains  distilled 
the  poison  of  rationalism  and  disobedience 
to  constituted  authority,  under  the  .pretext 
of  liberty,  independence,  etc.  I  never  knew 
a  rascal  yet  that  did  not  appeal  to  such  high 
sounding  pretensions  as  a  cover  to  hide  his 
depravity — just  like  the  snake  that  crawls 
among  the  flowers,  and  when  the  unwary 
Btoops  to  pluck  an  inviting  blossom,  lie  is 
met  by  tin-  deadly  fangs  concealed  beneath. 
7* 


}> 


o 


CHAP.  V. 


Protestant  saints  — cruelties  of  the  Hollanders  in  forcing 
protest  antism  into  the  netherlands  —  the  prince  of 
orange  and  the  duke  op   alva —  the  thirty  years'  wak  — 

PJBBSBCOTIONS  IN  the  UKlll.V  OH  HENRY  VI  II  —  PENAL  CODE  OK 
BXIZAHETII  —  IRELAND  DRENCHED  WITH  THE  BLOOD  OE  HER 
CHILDREN— D'aUBIGNE  AND  ST.  PATRICK  —  DESECKATION  OF 
THE  GRAVES  OF  IRISH  SAINTS. 


I 


T  is  not  at  all  pleasant  to  open  anew  the 
wounds  and  scars  of  religious  strife,  even 
by  allusion.  Individually,  we  would  rather 
allow  every  form  of  past  impiety,  bloodshed 
and  injustice  to  sleep  forever  in  the  dismal 
graves  of  their  own  making,  to  improve  the 
present,  and  to  look  forward  with  hope  to 
the  future  ;  but  the  spirit  of  Cain  is  still 
rampant  among  the  people,  and  nowhere 
does  it  seem  to  take  deeper  root  than  in  the 
hearts  of  your  Protestant  preachers.  Ob- 
serve one  of  these  creatures,  in  his  degraded 
pulpit,  and  you  cannot  fail  to  discover  a 
want  of  sincerity,  which,  to  the  student  of 
human  nature,  is  truly  revolting.  Nowhere 
could  you  find  a  purer  specimen  of  this 
class  than  the  very  D.    D.    of  the  "two< 


4 


i 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  79 

steepled"  clmrcli,  for  it  seems  as  if  his 
breast  is  a  nest  of  vipers,  and  every  time  lie 
opens  his  month,  a  serpent  thrusts  out  its 
head.  Poor  Darling  is  bad  enough  in  all 
conscience,  but  he  is  no  more  to  be  com- 
pared to  Clark,  in  virulence,  than  a  sword- 
fish  is  to  a  crocodile. 

This  brace  of  precious  revilers  have  both 
openly  and  covertly  attacked  us,  without 
any  provocation  whatever,  and  we  must  de- 
fend ourselves  as  best  we  can.  They  lie 
continually  about  us  ;  we  shall  content  our- 
•lves  by  telling  the  truth  about  them.  The 
one  calls  our  Church  the  "enemy  of  liberty," 
and  the  other,  the  "cruel  persecutor  of  the 
Baints  of  God,"  meaning  Protestants.  We 
have  disposed  of  the  former  accusation,  and 
ii  now  only  remains  for  as  to  disprove  the 
latter,  which  we  will  undertake  to  do  in  one 
sentence  :  There  never  was  such  a  being  as 
a  Proti  sin nt  xii i HI.  and  as  the  Church  could 
not  interfere  with  thai  which  had  no  exist- 
^Pbe,  the  assertion  is  at  once  proven  to  be 
false. 


80  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

On  the  contrary,  the  spirit  of  persecution 
has  always  accompanied  Protestantism,  as 
the  following  deeds  of  cruelty  will  clearly 
show :  The  history  of  Protestantism  forms 
but  one  long  catalogue  of  violence  ;  it  had 
its  origin  in  rebellion,  and  blood  and  murder 
fast  followed  in  its  train.  Rousseau,  who 
was  educated  a  Protestant,  says,  that  "the 
Reformation  was  intolerant  from  its  cradle, 
and  its  authors,  universally  persecutors." 

Good  people  of  the  "Dutch  Reformed," 
I  pray  you,  listen  to  your  amiable  saint 
Luther :  "  If  we  send  thieves  to  the  gallows, 
and  robbers  to  the  block,  why  do  we  not  fall 
on  those  masters  of  perdition,  the  popes, 
cardinals,  and  bishops,  with  all  our  force, 
and  not  give  over  till  we  have  bathed  our 
hands  in  their  blood  ? ' '  He  also  called  the 
people  to  arms  without  wraiting  for  the  orders 
of  a  magistrate.  He  counsels  his  followers 
after  this  manner :  "If  you  fall  before  the 
beast  (pope)  has  received  his  mortal  wound, 
you  will  have  but  one  thing  to  be  sorry  for, 
that  you  did  not  bury  your  dagger  in  his 


I 


' 


I 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  81 

breast.  All  that  defend  Mm  must  be  treated 
like  a  band  of  robbers,  be  they  kings  or  be 
they  Caesars."  These  were  the  first  blasts 
blown  from  the  trumpet  of  the  Reformation, 
and  which  summoned  the  Lutherans  and 
Anabaptists  of  Lower  Germany  to  deeds  of 
anarchy  and  confusion.  St.  Zwinglius  did 
the  same  in  Switzerland  ;  he  preached  his 
new  doctrine  by  the  aid  of  war  and  devasta- 
tion, as  did  Mahomet.  The  Anabaptists,  as 
well  as  the  Catholics,  came  in  for  their  share 
of  the  blessed  doctrine  —  little  of  the  milk 
of  the  Word,  but  plenty  of  cold  steel,  burn- 
ings, and  the  dungeon.  St.  Philip  Melanc- 
thon  wrote  a  work  in  defense  of  persecu- 
tions,  and  even  Bucer,  a  professor  of  divin- 
ity, sanctioned  the  dagger  and  the  axe  in 
propagating  the  new  religion  ;  and,  in  proof 
of  his  saintly  character,  he  taught,  that 
Servetus  should  not  only  be  burned,  1ml 
that  "his  bowels  ought  to  have  been  torn 
out,  and  his  body  chopped  to  pieces!" 
John   Calvin    stood   chief  gaifti  of  them  all 

in  his  persecuting  principles  ;  tie  established 


82  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

his  inquisition  at  Geneva,  for  the  punish- 
ment of  all  who  did  not  embrace  his  vile 
doctrine  of  "Predestination."  Poor  Serve- 
tus,  the  first  victim,  was  burned  at  the  stake, 
Gruet  lost  his  head,  and  Groteus  starved  to 
death  in  one  of  the  prisons  of  Berne.  St. 
Beza  also  wrote  a  work  in  support  of  perse- 
cutions. Baron  Des  Adrets  was  a  precious 
saint;  he  resembled  a  tiger  in  his  thirst  for 
blood;  and,  on  a  certain  occasion,  caused 
his  little  son  to  wash  his  young  hands  in 
Catholic  blood !  ! 

Neither  time  nor  space  will  allow  me  to 
record  the  terrible  massacre  at  Nismes  and 
Montpelier,  where  thousands  were  butchered 
in  cold  blood,  while  the  Consistories  of  Cal- 
vin looked  on  with  delight. 

The  cruel  devices  of  the  Hollanders  in 
forcing  Protestantism  into  the  Netherlands 
have  no  parallel  in  the  worst  ages  of  ancient 
barbarism.  Let  us  give  a  sample  of  Dutch 
cruelty,  as  portrayed  by  a  Protestant  histo- 
rian, Kerroux,  and  which  we  take  the  liberty 
to  copy  from  Plain  Talk:  "The  ordinary 


4 


THE    QUESTION   SOLVED.  83 

processes  of  cruel  torture  were  only  the 
lowest  degree  of  punishment  inflicted  on  the 
innocent.  Their  limbs  were  disjointed ;  the 
flesh,  hanging  in  shreds,  after  a  pitiless 
scourging,  was  swathed  in  rags  dipped  in 
alcohol,  then  set  on  fire  until  the  flesh  burnt 
and  the  nerves  crisped  ;  the  bones  were  bared 
to  view.  Sometimes,  so  much  as  half  a 
pound  of  sulphur  was  employed  in  burn- 
ing the  armpits  and  the  soles  of  their  feet. 
Thus  martyred,  they  were  abandoned  on 
the  fields  for  days  and  nights  without  any 
relief,  only  that  repeated  blows  drove  sleep 
away  from  their  eyes.  No  food  was  given 
but  herrings,  or  such  as  would  create  a 
burning  thirst,  whilst  no  kind  of  drink,  no, 
not.  even  water,  was  allowed.  Hornets  were 
inserted  to  sting  their  navels.  Sonoi  went 
so  far,  as  to  cause  rabid  rats  to  be  placed 
on  the  breasts  and  bellies  of  those  martyrs, 
inclosed  in  a  box  made  for  the  purpose,  and 
covered  with  combustibles.  Fire  being  up- 
plied,  these  vermin  became  furious,  and 
would  cleave  a  way  for  themselves,  tearing 


84  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

the  bowels  and  the  hearts  of  the  victims. 
The  wounds  were  seared  with  burning  coals, 
or  molten  lead  was  poured  into  them.  .  .  . 
He  had  invented  even  more  horrible  tor- 
ments, and  he  inflicted  them  in  cold  blood  ; 
cannibals  would  be  disgraced  by  his  cruelty  ; 
decency  forbids  us  to  say  more." 

In  plotting  murder  and  all  other  abomi- 
nations, those  early  Protestants  might  claim 
the  medal.  About  the  year  1580,  Henry 
III  was  dispatched  after  the  following  man- 
ner: the  Huguenot  faction  murdered  a 
Dominican  Friar,  and  one  of  the  assassins 
put  on  his  habit,  sought  admission  to  the 
royal  court,  and  assassinated  the  king  to 
make  room  for  Henry  IV,  who  favored 
their  cause. 

It  was  by  a  mean,  contemptible  plot  that 
William  of  Orange,  after  being  defeated  by 
the  Duke  of  Alva,  in  the  Netherlands,  when 
tranquillity  had  been  restored  to  that  dis- 
tracted region,  threw  it  back  again  into 
anarchy.  He  conspired  with  the  Holland- 
ers,   from    his    headquarters    among    the 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  85 

Huguenots,  in  France ;  he  had  his  emissa- 
ries play  the  role  of  preachers,  and  sent 
them  out  to  stir  up  a  new  revolt ;  and  when 
the  plan  was  matured,  he  led  out  his  adher- 
ents in  great  force,  before  the  Duke  of  Alva 
was  made  aware  of  the  fact,  and  the  Flemish 
dominions  were  drenched  in  human  gore. 

Look  through  the  history  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  and  see  the  sanguinary  horrors 
and  infamous  excesses  which  those  blas- 
phemous heresiarchs  brought  upon  every 
land  through  which  the  generals  of  the 
Infernal  Host  led  them.  They  deluged 
France,  Germany,  Denmark,  and  Sweden, 
with  rivers  of  blood  ;  devastated  towns  and 
villages  ;  and  showed  no  mercy  to  age,  sex, 
or  condition.  Estimates  of  the  number 
slain  in  battle  in  the  low  countries,  aside 
from  those  hanged,  emboweled,  starved, 
burned,  died  in  prison,  etc.,  are  variously 
laid  down  at  from  one  to  two  hundred 
thousand  ;  add  to  this  the  desecration  of 
phurches,  the  pillage  of  the  sacred  vessels. 
rare  and   costly  paintings  and  statuary,  the 


86  THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

destruction  of  libraries  which  contained  the 
collected  wisdom  of  ages,  the  abuse  of 
woman,  the  demoralization  of  children,  the 
lust  and  licentiousness  of  every  kind  and 
description,  and  you  have  the  first  fruits  of 
your  boasted  Reformation  in  Germany. 

What  has  been  said  of  distracted  Ger- 
many, may  be  told  of  France ;  wherever 
the  Calvinists  gained  strength  and  power, 
fearful  carnage  ensued.  Twenty  thousand 
Catholic  Churches  were  demolished,  and 
even  the  hospitals  which  contained  the  sick 
and  suffering  were  razed,  and  the  poor  in- 
mates abused  by  a  rough  and  brutal  soldiery, 
and  left  unsheltered  to  the  mercy  of  the 
elements.  The  whole  of  Normandy  was 
wrecked  in  a  most  frightful  manner,  priests 
were  murdered,  and  monks  buried  alive. 
In  the  province  of  Dauphiny,  three  hundred 
and  sixty- seven  priests  and  monks  were 
murdered,  and  nine  hundred  towns  and  vil- 
lages sacked  and  burned. 

In  Denmark  and  Sweden,  Protestant  vio- 
lence also  did  its  work,  and  to  this  present 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  87 

day  it  is  a  penal   offense  for  a  Swede  to 
become  a  Catholic. 

In  1533,  Pope  Harry  VIII,  of  blessed 
memory  to  Protestants,  sent  forth  his  bull, 
from  which  we  take  the  following  order : 
"Every  person  presented  or  indicted  of 
any  heresy,  or  duly  accused  by  two  lawful 
witnesses,  may  be  cited,  arrested  or  taken 
by  an  ordinary,  or  other  of  the  king's  sub- 
jects, and  committed  to  the  ordinary  to 
answer  in  open  court ;  and,  being  convicted, 
shall  abjure  his  heresies,  and,  refusing  to 
do  so,  or  falling  into  relapse,  shall  be 
h iirned  in  open  place,  for  an  example  to 
others." 

Very  soon  a  poor  priest  named  John 
Nicholson  was  condemned,  and  burned  at 
Bmithfield  ;  and  after  him  a  man  and  a 
woman  were  also  committed  to  the  ilames. 
Two  priests  and  an  abbot  were  hung  and 
quartered  at  Reading,  and  the  Abbot  of 
Glastonbury  was  hung  and  quartered  at 
Torre  Hill.  Shortly  after  two  monks  and 
the  Abbot   of  ('olchester  were    put   to  death 


88  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

for  simply  denying  the  king's  supremacy. 
Two  noblemen,  Sir  William  Peterson,  and 
Sir  William  Richardson,  priests,  were 
drawn  on  the  rack,  hanged  and  quartered 
for  the  same  offense.  Anne  Ascue,  a  beau- 
tiful young  lady,  who  was  accused  of  dog- 
matizing on  an  article  of  faith,  met  with  a 
most  terrible  death.  After  the  poor  crea- 
ture had  been  stretched  on  the  rack,  the 
chancellor  ordered  the  lieutenant  of  the 
Tower  to  turn  it  still  further ;  the  officer 
refused,  and  in  a  moment  of  rage  the 
chancellor  himself  put  his  hands  to  the 
cruel  instrument,  and  almost  tore  her  body 
asunder !  This  failed  to  make  her  re- 
nounce her  faith,  when  she  was  taken  out, 
carried  in  a  chair  to  Smithfield,  and  there 
burned  alive  with  three  others,  condemned 
for  the  same  offense. 

Some  writers  calculate  that,  during  the 
despotic  sway  of  Henry  VIII,  seventy-two 
thousand  persons  were  executed,  but  this 
falls  far  below  the  proper  estimate.  The 
truth  never  can  be  known,  on  account  of 


THE    QUESTION"   SOLVED.  89 

the  numbers  that  were  privately  assassin- 
ated ;  and  then  again,  our  chief  information 
on  the  subject  is  taken  from  Protestant 
sources.  Most  of  the  Catholics  that  were 
left  within  the  realm  were  so  persecuted 
that  their  lives  were  but  a  slow  process  of 
death. 

When  the  perjured  Elizabeth,  the  illegiti- 
mate daughter  of  Henry,  ascended  the 
throne,  the  edicts  of  persecution  were  re- 
newed with  double  energy.  The  most 
severe  laws  and  penal  enactments  were  set 
in  motion,  the  recital  of  which  makes  the 
heart  sick.  An  ecclesiastical  commission 
was  set  up,  called  the  Star  Chamber,  the 
iniquities  of  which  would  rival  even  the 
court  of  Pluto.  The  fiends,  on  the  slightest 
pr- -tense  or  suspicion,  would  arraign  a  per- 
son before  them,  administer  to  him  an 
oath,  and  extort  confession  by  the  rack, 
imprisonmenl  and  fines.  If  one  showed 
th<'  smallest  consideration  for,  or  exercised 
tin*  Leasl   acl   of  hospitality  or  benevolence 

towanl.  a   religions,  he  was  lined  and  im 

8* 


90  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

prisoned.  Hanging,  burning,  emboweling, 
racking,  and  quartering,  were  the  order 
of  the  day.  It  seemed  as  if  every  feeling 
of  humanity  had  perished  in  the  bosoms  of 
those  inhuman  reformers,  and  that  malig- 
nity of  the  most  direful  kind  had  taken  its 
place.  The  tears  of  the  widow,  the  cries 
of  the  orphan,  the  sobs  and  groans  of  the 
dying,  failed  to  awaken  the  first  minimum 
of  justice,  the  first  impulse  of  mercy. 

During  the  fierce  and  bloody  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  tribunals  were  established,  all 
over  the  land,  to  suppress  the  Catholic 
faith,  and  thousands  of  that  communion 
were  apprehended,  confined,  banished, 
hanged  and  tortured,  without  a  due  pro- 
cess of  law.  Even  children,  who  absented 
themselves  from  Protestant  worship,  were 
cast  into  prison,  and  often  executed. 

Who  has  not  heard  of  Edward  Campian, 
the  famous  scholar,  and  one  of  the  brightest 
stars  that  ever  appeared  in  the  galaxy  of 
Christ  Church  School,  in  London.  He  it 
was  who  delivered  the  Latin  oration  before 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  91 

the  beautiful  Queen  of  Scots  upon  her  acces- 
sion to  the  throne.     He  subsequently  took 
the  degree  of  A.   M.   at  Oxford,   and  was 
admitted  to  orders  by  the  Protestant  Bishop 
of  Gloucester.     When  Elizabeth  paid  her 
respects  to  the   University,  he  was   again 
chosen  to  deliver  an  oration  in  Latin,  which 
captivated  all  present ;  it  was  a  production 
of  great  merit,  and  a  master-piece  of  elo- 
quence.    But,  like  every  great  and  honest 
mind,  he  became  suspicious  of  the  reformed 
doctrines,  retired  to  Ireland,  where,  after  a 
faithful    study  of   the    subject,    aided    by 
prayer,   he    renounced    the  errors    of   the 
Information,   and  embraced  the  old  faith. 
II.'  t  drew  away,  as  worthless,  all  the  honors, 
distinctions  and  preferments  which  he  had 
l)iii  to  stretch  out  his  hand  to  acquire,  even 
the   patronage  of  the  throne,   to  join  the 
Society  of  Jesns,  and  lead  the  life  of  a  poor 
missionary  priest.     lie  was  spotted  out  in 
[reland,  and  obliged  to  fly  the  country;  he 
returned  to  England,  to  be  a  nested  for  high 
treason,    and    condemned,    without    proper 


92  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

evidence,  with  three  other  priests.  They 
were  executed  at  Tyburn.  Here  was  a  man 
charged  with  the  crime  of  high  treason, 
whose  character  was  pure  and  spotless  from 
his  youth  up,  the  pride  of  the  learned,  an 
ornament  to  society,  and  a  friend  of  human- 
ity, who  preferred  a  life  of  poverty,  with 
truth  and  justice  for  his  models,  rather  than 
to  be  a  peer  among  the  great  ones  of  earth, 
with  whom  humanity  was  weakness,  and 
justice  a  mockery. 

Search  the  universe  from  pole  to  pole, 
look  back  through  the  annals  of  Time,  and 
you  cannot  find  any  thing  to  compare  in 
ferocity  with  the  penal  laws  of  Elizabeth. 
The  freedom  of  man' s  will  was  enslaved  by 
brute  force  ;  he  was  forbidden  to  follow  the 
dictates  of  his  own  conscience,  and  com- 
pelled to  attend  a  worship  which  his  reason 
and  faith  told  him  was  false.  He  was  taxed 
beyond  his  means  to  support  that  in  which 
he  had  no  part  or  concern ;  he  could  not 
entertain  for  a  moment  a  priest  or  a  teacher 
of  his  own  choice,  beneath  his  roof,  without 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  93 

exposing  himself  to  fines,  imprisonment  and 
even  to  death.  He  was  robbed  of  the  fruits 
of  toil,  forbidden  to  travel  more  than  five 
miles  from  his  own  home,  not  even  to  attend 
the  burial  of  a  fond  and  tender  parent  or 
friend.  The  wife  of  his  bosom,  and  the 
daughter  of  his  affection,  were  brutalized 
before  his  face,  and  by  those,  too,  who 
claimed  to  be  the  only  legitimate  Chris- 
tians ! ! !  Three  men  could  not  meet  in  the 
street,  even  by  accident,  without  being  ap- 
prehended and  punished.  No  Catholic 
could  own  a  horse  worth  more  than  £5; 
should  he  possess  such  an  animal,  a  Prot- 
estant was  at  liberty  to  come  and  demand 
it.  and  it'  refused  might  break  in  the  door 
of  tin-  stable  and  take  him  by  force  !  If  the 
owner  made  any  objections,  the  robber 
might  shoot  him,  without  being  punished 
for  his  crime.  No  Catholic  could  act  as 
guardian,  or  give  instruction  to  the  orphan 

child  of  a  deceased  brother  or  sister.  Lenses 
were  granted  to  Protestants  alone,  beyond  a 
certain   term;    no  Papist   could   serve  on  a 


94  THE    QUESTION   SOLVED. 

jury,  or  give  evidence  in  a  court  of  law.  A 
Catholic  could  not  be  admitted  to  bail ;  in 
fact,  he  had  no  privilege  that  he  might  call 
his  own !  The  sum  of  £5  was  paid  for  the 
head  of  his  priest  and  his  schoolmaster! 
It  was  no  unfrequent  incident  for  a  ruffian 
to  rush  into  a  Catholic  congregation,  and 
thrust  a  dagger  through  the  body  of  the 
priest,  while  officiating  at  the  altar !  These 
are  but  samples  of  the  atrocities  which  poor 
Ireland  had  to  suffer  during  the  reign  of 
that  shameless  woman,  who  was  head  and 
mistress  of  the  second  Protestant  reforma- 
tion in  England. 

The  sufferings  of  Irish  Catholics  during 
the  invasion  of  Cromwell,  that  worse  than 
Groth  or  Vandal,  were  truly  terrific.  This 
pious  murderer  capped  the  climax  of  all 
inhumanity.  But  why  do  I  specify?  Each 
English  marauder  vied  with  his  predecessor 
in  brutality.  Murder,  robbery,  and  confis- 
cation were  the  leading  virtues  of  Protestant 
rule  in  Ireland.  Thousands  upon  thousands 
were  slaughtered,  so  that  the  land  was  cov- 


THE    QUESTION   SOLVED.  95 

ered  over  with  the  mangled  bodies  of  its  own 
people.     Dr.  Curry,  who  was  a  man  of  truth 
and  unblemished   character,    describes  the 
condition  of  the  province  of  Munster  during 
the  ravages  of  Elizabeth's  troops:    "Great 
companies  of   men,    women  and    children 
were  often  forced  into   castles   and    other 
houses  which  were  then  set  on  fire  ;  and,  if 
any  of  them  attempted  to  escape  from  the 
flames,   they  were  shot  or  stabbed  by  the 
soldiers  who  guarded  them.     It  was  a  diver- 
sion to  these  monsters  of  men,  to  take  up 
infants  on  the  points  of  their  spears,  and 
whirl  1 1 1 <  •  1 1 1  about  in  their  agony,  saying  that, 
if   suffered   to  live,   they  would  grow  up 
Popish  rebels.     Women  were  found  hanging 
i. ii  trees,  with  their  children  nt  their  breasts, 
strangled  with  their  mothers'  hair." 

Behold  the  atrocities  of  John  Knox,  who 
has  been  styled  the  "Ruffian  of  the  Refor- 
mation," and  his  pack  of  gospel-mongers. 
They  succeeded  in  pulling  down  the  ancient 
landmarks  of  Catholic  faith,  and  Catholic 
morality,   and   finally  degraded    the   once 


96  TITE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

noble  Scot  into  a  semi-infidel,  and  brought 
his  Highland  home  into  servile  subjection 
to  Elizabeth,  the  harlot  Qneen  of  England. 

Blessings  on  you,  Ireland,  land  of  strong 
and  steadfast  faith ;  your  green  hills  and 
fertile  valleys  were  stained  with  the  inno- 
cent blood  of  your  own  children ;  though 
starvation,  the  jail,  the  ax,  and  the  gibbet 
did  their  work  of  death  and  misery,  you 
have  survived  the  shock,  and  to-day  stand 
as  firmly  to  the  religion  of  St.  Patrick,  as 
when  that  glorious  Apostle  laid  him  down 
to  die,  by  the  peaceful  waters  of  the  Red 
Lake  ! 

That  weak  minded  old  dotard  who  under- 
took to  write  an  apology  for  the  Lutheran 
revolt,  and  called  it  "History,"  writes 
another  foolish  document,  claiming  St. 
Patrick  for  the  Presbyterians,  in  which  he 
makes  a  laughing  stock  of  himself.  As 
well  might  the  donkey  that  dug  up  Joe 
Smith's  Bible  claim  to  be  its  author,  as 
D'Aubigne  to  make  a  Protestant  of  holy 
St.   Patrick.      He    never    mentions    in  his 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  97 

pamphlet,  how  the  Protestants  treated  the 
remains  of  that  Saint,  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII ;  how  the  viceroy  of  Ireland,  to  please 
his  royal  master,  and  to  weaken  the  faith 
of  Irishmen,  repaired  to  the  County  Down, 
where  were  interred  the  bodies  of  St.  Pat- 
rick, St.  Bridget  and  St,  Colnmbkille; 
broke  open  their  graves ;  dragged  their 
hallowed  remains  from  the  sacred  precincts 
of  the  tomb,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  troop  of 
brutal  soldiers  scattered  their  ashes  to  the 
four  winds  as  they  mournfully  passed  over 
Lough-Derg. 

The  untutored  savage  respects  the  mem- 
ory and  resting  place  of  his  dead,  and  in 
his  greatest  acts  of  barbarism,  pauses  before 
the  graves  of  his  sires  ;  nor  will  he  molest 
the  sacred  mounds,  where  are  interred  his 
enemies  in  battle — but  it  was  reserved  for 
Protestants  to  defile  and  pollute  the  hal- 
lowed  bones  of  our  venerated  and  sanctified 
dead. 

Protestanl  tyrants,  you  have  stolen  our 

goods    and    chattels,    robbed    us    of    onr 

o 


98  THE    QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

magnificent  Christian  temples,  which  the 
faith  and  piety  of  our  forefathers  had 
erected  to  the  worship  and  glory  of  the 
Triune  God;  you  have  demolished  the 
houses  of  our  religious  confraternities, 
leveled  the  homes  of  the  poor,  and  slaugh- 
tered our  people  by  the  million  !  But  the 
most  brazen  of  all,  for  us  Irishmen  in  par- 
ticular, and  the  hardest  to  be  borne,  is,  that 
after  such  acts  of  Vandalism  and  sacrilege, 
of  murder  and  persecution,  Protestants 
will  turn  round  and  tell  us  what  a  liberal 
set  of  Christians  they  are  !  !  Yes,  you  are 
very  liberal,  in  your  abuse,  your  hatred  and 
your  plunder  !  !  You  will  even  give  the  old 
excuse,  that  you  robbed  us  for  our  good, 
murdered  and  abused  us  for  our  souls'  sake. 
Was  there  ever  impudence  equal  to  this? 
Oh,  you  race  of  vipers,  your  love  but  equals 
your  hate ;  your  kiss  is  like  the  kiss  of  Judas 
Iscariot  when  he  betrayed  our  blessed  Lord, 
and  your  embrace  is  as  cold  and  as  clammy 
as  the  coils  of  your  spiritual  father  when  he 
seduced  mother  Eve  in  the  Garden  of  Eden. 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  99 

I  might  fill  page  after  page  with  deeds  of 
torture,  each  one  worse  than  the  other,  and 
which  could  not  be  equaled  unless  in  the 
regions  of. the  damned.  These  were  the 
means  adopted  by  the  Saints  of  the  Refor- 
mation to  promulgate  a  new  religion  among 
Catholics.  These  are  the  choice  spirits  that 
Dr.  Clark  undertakes  to  defend ;  he  raises 
his  polluted  hand  (upon  which  the  unction 
of  grace  never  rested),  and  declares,  in  the 
face  of  Heaven,  that  this  band  of  hangmen 
and  cut-throats  were  "saints,"  the  "elect 
of  God,"  etc.,  etc  ! ! !  As  well  try  to  blot 
out  the  stars  from  the  blue  vault  of  night, 
as  to  establish  them  among  the  friends  of 
the  blessed  Saviour.  Rather,  give  them 
their  proper  1 1 1 1  <•  *  -  call  them  the  "hell- 
hounds" of  the  great  Protestant  rebellion! 


CHAP.  VI. 

Landing  or  tttf  pilgrims  —  puritan  intolerance  —  the  blue 

LAWS  —  THE  QUAKER  I'EKSEl  TTION  —  PURITANICAL  HYPOCRISY- 
WITCHES— CATHOLIC  COLONY  OF  MARYLAND  — INDIAN  CONVER- 
SIONS—PROTESTANT INTRIGUE  IN   MARYLAND. 

DR.  CLARK  may  charge  such  enormities 
to  the  account  of  Church  of  England 
Protestantism,  but  this  will  not  help  his 
cause  in  the  least ;  for,  to  us,  all  the  isms 
are  the  same.  They  have  all  been  hatched 
from  the  same  serpent' s  egg,  and  none  have 
shown  more  intolerance  than  his  own  Puri- 
tan ancestors.  Had  Rufus  W.  Clark,  D.  D., 
lived  in  colonial  times,  he  would  have 
made  a  fine  specimen  of  a  brutal  perse- 
cutor— neither  Endicott  nor  Cotton  Mather 
could  begin  to  show  half  the  virulence  that 
this  fierce  reviler  of  Catholics  would  mete 
out  to  those  who  should,  perchance,  differ 
from  him  in  matters  of  religion.  It  is 
really  sickening  to  hear  those  Fourth  of 
July  orators,  lay  and  clerical,  beat  the  air 
and  shout  in  laudation  and  fulsome  praise 
the  character  of  a  band  of  men  the  most- 
bigoted  and  sanguinary  that  ever  trod  the 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  101 

shores  of  the  western  world.  Such  eulogies 
from  year  to  year,  from  pulpit  to  pulpit, 
and  through  the  medium  of  the  press,  re- 
flect no  more  the  character  of  New  Eng- 
land Puritanism,  than  the  saintly  reputa- 
tion of  John  the  Evangelist  illustrates  the 
life  of  a  Choctaw  Indian. 

The  first  information  that  we  generally 
receive  from  these  garrulous  declaimers  is, 
that  the  Pilgrims  were  driven  to  the  wilder- 
ness of  the  west  by  the  edicts  of  perse- 
cution ;  then  follows  a  description  of  their 
sufferings  on  the  stormy  ocean  ;  their  land- 
ing on  Plymouth  Rock,  in  midwinter ;  the 
hunger  and  deprivation  incident  to  a  new 
settlement,  etc.  —and  all  to  secure  civil  and 
religious  freedom. 

We  have  investigated  this  subject  in  a 
spirit  of  candid  inquiry,  and  found  not  a 
word  of  truth  in  such  recitations.  It  is 
all  Yankee  blarney!  Neither  in  Secretary 
Morton's  F/'rr  Rmsons,  nor  Hutchinson's 
Collections,   do  we   ftnd    that   persecution 

ha<l    any   thing   to   do   with    the   landing  of 


102  THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

the  Puritans  on  Plymouth  Rock.  In  the 
address  of  J.  Prescott  Hall,  before  the  New 
England  Society,  he  declares,  that  in  Hol- 
land, at  the  time  of  the  departure  of  the 
Puritans,  "the  free  exercise  of  every  man's 
religious  opinions  and  practice  was  thor- 
oughly guarded."  One  of  their  own  party 
affirms,  in  his  eight  reasons  for  the  depart- 
ure of  the  Puritans  for  Massachusetts,  that 
"they  did  sweetly  enjoy  their  church  liber- 
ties," and  that  they  left  "with  their  own 
free  choice  and  motion." 

If  such  was  the  fact,  what  need  of  all 
these  crocodile  tears  concerning  the  landing 
of  the  pilgrims?  What  did  the  privations 
of  a  few  days  amount  to,  in  comparison 
with  the  advantages  soon  to  be  realized? 
They  made  applications  to  Sir  Fernando 
Gorges,  President  of  the  Plymouth  council, 
from  whom  they  obtained  "concessions 
equal  to  their  desires,"  and  "to  the  par- 
ticular satisfaction  and  content  of  them 
all."  This  shows,  at  least,  that  they  were 
placed  under  good  auspices. 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  103 

Trumbull,  a  Puritan  historian,  says,  that 
"the  uncommon  mortality  of  1617  had 
in  a  manner  depopulated  that  part  of 
the  country  in  which  they  began  their 
plantations.  They  found  fields  which  had 
been  planted,  without  owners ;  and  a  fine 
country  round  them,  in  some  measure  cul- 
t  i  rated,  without  an  inhabitant."  They  were 
enabled  to  subsist  from  the  natural  pro- 
ducts of  the  surrounding  country,  without 
realizing  any  annoyance  from  the  poor 
Indian,  whom  they  afterward  so  cruelly 
persecuted.  Less  than  a  year  subsequent 
to  their  arrival,  Edward  Winslow  wrote  to 
his  friends  in  England,  that,  "by  the  good- 
iifss  of  God,  we  are  so  far  from  want  thai 
We  often  wish  you  partakers  of  our 
plenty."  This  dors  not  look  like  those 
pictures  of  misery  and  deprivation  which 
our  rhetoricians  paint  in  the  imagination 
of  wondering  thousands. 

Wears  qoI  actuated  by  any  feelings  of 
prejudice  against  these  stern,  unyielding 
Puritans     they  had  many  good  qualities, 


104  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

of  which,  perseverance  and  courage  were 
the  most  prominent ;  but  we  are  unwilling 
to  give  them  any  praise  beyond  what  truth 
and  common  sense  will  allow. 

In  England,  these  over-zealous  men  were 
loud  in  their  denunciations  of  tyrannical 
power,  and  used  every  artifice  to  overturn 
the  government,  in  order  to  establish  uni- 
versal   toleration  which   was    their    boast. 
What  was  this  but  a  hypocritical  pretense 
to  entice  the  masses  under  their  banner  —  a 
wily  trick,  characteristic  of  Protestants  all 
over  the  world.     The  same  spirit  animates 
the  sects  of  to-day ;  when  they  want  to  carry 
a  point  they  drown  truth  and  rectitude  by 
inflammatory  appeals  to  freedom.     But,  to 
the  everlasting  disgrace  of  New  England 
Puritanism,  it  permitted  the  love  of  domin- 
ion and  the  lust  for  gain  to  usurp  the  place 
of  godliness  and  universal  charity.      One 
of  their  first  acts  of  legislation  was  a  union 
of  Church  and  State ;  then  followed  other 
laws,  penalties  and  provisions,  which  could 
only  be  equaled  by  the  fiery  and  blood- 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  K 

stained  edicts  of  the  worst  period  of  ancient 
despotism. 

Watch  the  drift  of  Protestantism,  and 
you  will  find  an  artery  running  through  the 
whole  system,  uniform  in  all  its  details.  It 
affects  to  supply  the  body  with  nourish- 
ment and  vigor,  until  it  comes  to  a  certain 
point,  when,  from  some  undue  pressure  or 
untoward  circumstance,  inherent  in  the  con- 
stitution, its  character  is  changed,  its  use- 
fulness ceases,  and,  instead  of  a  life-giving 
channel,  it  becomes  a  pool  of  impurities, 
noxious  and  deadly  in.  its  influences. 

English  Puritans  strenuously  opposed 
the  established  Church,  and  denounced 
kingly  rule,  until  they  found  a  fitting  place 
to  exercise  that  liberty  of  conscience  which 
was  their  boast,  t  heir  desire,  and  their  chief 
aim  ;  but  selfishness  changed  their  ideas 
completely,  and  they  were  no  sooner  settled 
in  their  new  abode,  than  their  own  establish- 
ment began  framing  Laws,  concerning  mat- 
te] of  faith,  whose  rigor  and  bigotry  had 
scarcely  a  parallel.      They    were  guilty  of 


10G  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

worse  severities  toward  others,  for  conscience 
sake,  than  were  ever  measured  out  to  them. 
They  commenced  their  acts  against  heresy 
in  1631,  and  thus  these  meek  and  pious 
Puritans  forgot  their  "Anti-Christian  bond- 
age," and  from  peaceful  lambs  they  became 
ravening  wolves,  thirsting  for  the  blood  of 
their  fellow  creatures.  Baptists,  Roman 
Catholics,  and  Quakers,  came  in  for  their 
share  of  Puritan  liberty,  of  whippings, 
lashings,  banishments,  prisons,  and  the  gib- 
bet, and  all  because  they  claimed  to  worship 
God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own 
conscience.  They  wielded  the  power  of  their 
Church  "constantly,"  says  Chief  Justice 
Story,  "by  the  arm  of  civil  government." 

In  1629,  at  Salem,  Mass.,  they  drew  up  a 
solemn  covenant  with  this  jDledge,  to  wit : 
"We  do  bind  ourselves,  in  the  presence  of 
God,  to  walk  together  in  all  His  ways, 
according  as  He  is  pleased  to  reveal  himself 
to  us  in  His  Blessed  Word  of  Truth  ;  nor 
will  we  deal  harshly  or  oppressingly  with 
any,  wherein  we  are  the  Lord's  stewards." 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  107 

Now  we  will  see  how  they  kept  their 
covenant !  Pines  were  imposed  for  absence 
from  their  worship,  and  they  levied  taxes 
to  support  "a  lawful,  orthodox,  and  godly 
ministry."  They  passed  laws  against  the 
kipping  of  Christmas,  holidays  or  any  other 
festival,— fined  all  who  publicly  found  fault 
with  their  statutes,  and  placed  persons  in 
the  stocks  who  denied  their  right  to  com- 
pel all  to  attend  congregational  worship. 
If  any  one  possessed  a  book  not  orthodox, 
he  was  heavily  fined,  and  if  a  woman' s 
tongue,  which  they  considered  very  loose 
and  unruly,  should  say  a  word  contrary  to 
the  established  laws,  it  was  placed  in  the 
cleft  of  a  stick  until  she  mended  her  man- 
ners. They  allowed  but  one  printing  office 
in  tli'-  whole  colony,  from  which  issued  a 
muzzled  newspaper.  I  pwards  of  eighty 
opinions  were  reported  to  the  godly  censors, 
being  u  notorious  impieties  and  damnable 
hen  The  Puritanical   parsons  were 

the   inquisitors,    and    had   to   be   consulted 
before  any  law  could    be   passed,  and    they 


108  THE    QUESTION   SOLVED. 

used  the  pulpit  upon  all  occasions,  to  carry 
out  their  likes  and  dislikes.  No  man  could 
till  office  without  their  sanction,  directly  or 
indirectly,  and  they  pried  even  into  the 
practices  of  social  life,  so  that  nothing 
escaped  their  vigilance.  Dr.  Morse  says, 
"they  prohibited  the  use  of  tobacco,  under 
a  penalty ;  but  at  length  some  of  the  clergy 
fell  into  the  practice  of  smoking,  and  tobacco, 
by  an  act  of  government,  was  set  at  liberty." 
Bancroft  says,  "that  the  elders  instigated 
and  sustained  the  government  in  its  worst 
cruelties."  They  went  even  beyond  their 
own  jurisdiction  to  take  vengeance,  for  in 
1643  we  iind  Samuel  Gorton  and  others  not 
belonging  to  the  Massachusetts  colony, 
marched  from  Rhode  Island  to  Boston,  at 
the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and  condemned  to 
death  for  holding  ' '  blasphemous  and  wicked 
errors. ' '  Many  were  compelled  to  wear  irons 
on  one  leg,  work  like  slaves,  and  then  sent 
to  England,  deprived  of  their  possessions, 
their  chattels  and  their  goods. 
These  Puritans  were  as  false  in  their  pro- 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  109 

fessions  as  they  were  wicked  in  their  actions; 
they  persecuted  those  for  whom  they  pro- 
fessed friendship  and  high  regard ;  they  in- 
tercepted private  letters,  and  read  them  in 
general  court,  on  the  slightest  pretext.  They 
instituted  a  test  act,  odious  and  detestable, 
so  that  no  one  could  vote,  hold  office  or 
property,  without  being  members  of  the 
Puritan  church.  They  scoffed  at  the  right 
of  petition,  and  laughed,  if  a  Puritan  could 
laugh,  at  any  one  vain  enough  to  suppose 
that  justice  could  be  found  outside  the  pale 
of  Plymouth  colony.  If  a  man  but  opened 
his  mouth  in  his  own  defense,  or  asked  a 
i  i  lt  1 1 1  to  which  bethought  he  was  entitled,  he 
was  at  once  branded  as  a  public  disturber, 
fined  and  imprisoned. 

I.ut  the  most  barefaced  of  all  was,  that  at 
the  very  time  in  which  they  were  visiting 
such  enormities  upon  all  those  who  in  any 
way  differed  from  them,  morally  and  soci- 
ally, the  Genera]  Court  appointed  a  com- 
mittee t<>  frame  anew  some  ol"  their  laws,  in 

order  to  Let  autocratical  England  know  their 
L0 


110  THE  QUESTION  SOLVED. 

utter  disaffection  to  arbitrary  government." 
There  is  Protestant  consistency  for  you  !  !  ! 

The  next  sect  who  laid  claim  to  principles 
of  religious  liberty  were  the  Baptists,  who 
were  terribly  persecuted  by  the  iron  hand 
of  Puritan  supremacy.  They  made  great 
demonstrations  of  liberality,  talked  loudly 
of  "Jerusalem's  prosperity  and  Babylon's 
destruction,"  and  declared  that  "earthly 
authority  belongeth  to  earthly  kings,  but 
spiritual  authority  belongeth  to  that  spir- 
itual king,  who  is  King  of  kings." 

The  moment  the  meek  smdplozis  Puritans 
heard  this  declaration,  that  moment  they 
made  a  fell  swoop  on  the  Baptists  —  immer- 
sion itself  could  not  hide  them.  Pulpits 
thundered  anathema  against  them  for  hold- 
ing "damnable  opinions,"  so  that  they  had 
to  scamper,  or  become  submissive  to  the 
mild  persuasive  power  of  the  cat-o'-nine- 
tails. Poor  Thomas  Painter,  for  refusing 
to  have  his  child  sprinkled,  was  handed 
over  to  the  man  with  the  knotted  whip, 
although  they  would  have  preferred  a  fine, 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  Ill 

to  help  fill  their  godly  coffers ;  but  Win- 
throp  says  ' '  he  was  very  poor,  so  that  no 
other  but  corporeal  punishment  could  be 
inflicted  upon  him,"  he  was  ordered  to  be 
publicly  whipped. 

I  will  not  go  further  into  the  abominable 
acts  of  legislation,  exclusiveness  and  hypoc- 
risy, which  marked  the  early  career  of  New 
England  Puritanism;  the  statutes  against 
heresy  alone  tilled  seven  large  and  closely 
printed  pages.  Suffice  it  to  give  a  few  of  the 
persecutions  that  were  instituted  and  put  in 
force  against  all  those  who  were  so  unfortu- 
nate as  to  differ  from  puritanical  orthodoxy. 

In  1656,  before  any  laws  against  Quakers 
were  enacted,  two  members  of  that  peace- 
able  society,  Mary  Fisher  and  Ann  Austin, 
arrived  at  Boston.  They  were  immediately 
seized,  their  trunks  and  baggage  diligently 
searched,  and  their  books  and  papers  carried 
to  tin-  market-place  and  publicly  burned  by 
tin-  hangman,  without  due  process  of  law. 
TIk-  good  ladies  were  brought  before  Helling- 
li.iin,  who  at  once  committed  them  to  prison 


1  1  \!  THE  QUESTION  SOLVED. 

because  they  addressed  him  after  the  man- 
ner of  their  order,  with  thee  and  thou ! 
Their  bodies  were  minutely  examined  to  see 
if  they  had  witch  marks,  no  respect  was 
paid  them  even  on  account  of  their  sex,  and 
they  remained  in  confinement  five  weeks, 
almost  starved  to  death.  Upall  interested 
himself  in  their  behalf,  when  they  were 
taken  from  their  prisons  and  sent  back  to 
where  they  came  from.  It  was  well  for 
them  that  Endicott  was  not  there  at  the  time, 
for  he  afterwards  declared,  that  "had  he 
known  it,  he  would  have  had  them  scourged 
before  they  left." 

Others  of  the  same  society  followed,  not 
knowing  the  fate  of  the  poor  women.  They 
were  presented  to  the  governor  on  their 
arrival,  when  the  following  advice  was  given 
them,  "Take  ye  heed  not  to  break  our 
ecclesiastical  laws,  for  then  ye  are  sure  to 
stretch  by  a  halter."  The  Captain  of  the 
ship  that  brought  these  men  from  England 
was  obliged  to  take  them  back  again  at  his 
own  expense. 


THE  QUESTION"  SOLVED.  113 

Poor  old  Upall,  himself  a  Puritan,  because 
of  a  few  remarks  he  had  made  on  the  unrea- 
sonableness of  such  actions,  was  cast  into 
prison,  fined  and  banished,  in  his  old  age, 
from  the  colony.  On  his  way  to  Rhode 
Island  he  stopped  with  an  Indian  Chief  to 
whom  he  told  his  pitiful  story,  and  to  which 
the  Indian  replied,  "What  a  God  have  the 
English,  who  deal  so  with  one  another  about 
their  God." 

In  1658,  the  most  severe  enactments  were 
passed  against  Quakers,  and  it  is  horrible 
to  recount  the  severe  persecutions  inflicted 
upon  them  for  conscience'  sake.  They  were 
apprehended  without  warrant,  tried  and 
Sentenced  to  !*•  expelled  the  country,  or 
else  suffer  death.  They  were  whipped, 
kicked,  buffeted,  branded,  fined,  put  in 
stocks  and  cages,  imprisoned  and  hung. 
They  were  styled  "pernicious,"  "cursed," 
"heretics,"  "ranters,"  "rogues"  and 
"vagabonds."  They  could  not  dispose  of 
their  property  by  will ;  they  were  stripped 
to  the  waist,  both  sexes,  for  absenting  thein- 


114  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

selves  from  the  "law-church,"  and  "stretch- 
ed rack- wise  upon  the  wheels  of  a  great 
gun,  or  tied  to  a  cart's  tail  and  dragged 
through  the  most  public  streets  of  town 
after  town  until  they  were  beyond  the 
bounds  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  lashed 
as  they  went  along.  They  were  turned  out 
at  the  dead  of  night  amid  frost  and  snow  ; 
they  were  branded  R.  (rogue),  and  H.  (here- 
tic) ;  their  ears  were  cropped,  tongues  bored 
through  ;  they  were  sentenced  to  be  sold  as 
slaves,  banished,  and  often  hung  and  left 
unburied." 

Who  were  the  principal  agents  in  this 
hellish  drama  of  blood  and  cruelty  ?  Who, 
but  men  of  Dr.  Clark' s  stamp  !  They  pro- 
fessed Christian  charity,  while  their  actions 
would  do  honor  to  Lucifer  and  his  sable 
host. 

Rev.  John  Wilson  stood  high  among  the 
Puritan  saints,  and  was  "counted  blessed 
beyond  his  fellows"  ;  hear  him  in  a  council 
convened  to  punish  three  men  and  a  woman 
who  would  not  believe  in  the  "blessed  doc- 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  115 

trine,"  as  preached  by  the  pious  divines  of 
of  Plymouth  colony.  "Hang  them,"  said 
he,  "else," — drawing  his  finger  across  his 
throat  — !  you  may  imagine  the  rest.  As 
these  poor  people  were  led  out  to  the  scaf- 
fold, Wilson  marched  along  at  the  same  time, 
insulting  them  as  they  went,  like  a  fiend  of 
the  bottomless  pit,  glorying  in  their  misery, 
which  he  was  potent  in  consummating  ;  and 
when  Mary  Dyer  ascended  the  ladder,  he 
actually  handed  his  own  handkerchief  to 
the  hangman  to  pull  over  her  eyes  ! 

They  ordered  some  to  be  chained  to  a  log, 
without  food  or  drink,  through  the  coldest 
days,  and  in  the  most  public  place,  until 
they  were  frost-bitten  ;  others  had  their  ears 
nailed  to  a  tree  on  Boston  Common,  and 
could  not  be  liberated  without  cither  tearing 
away  the  flesh  or  remaining  until  mortifica- 
tion had  set  in. 

If  a  Catholic  priest  entered  the  colony,  he 
could  be  apprehended  without  due  form  of 
law,  and  hung  to  the  first  tree  or  ])ost.  We 
need  not  speak  of  the  fearful  penalties  which 


116  THE   QUESTION"  SOLVED. 

were  inflicted  upon  all  the  unfortunate  old 
women,  who  were  at  all  singular  in  manner 
or  appearance  ;  for  such  there  was  either  a 
fagot  or  a  halter.  But  the  unkindest  cut  of 
all  was,  that  after  they  had  executed  many 
of  their  criminals,  they  found  out  they  were 
by  no  means  guilty !  For  all  such  perse- 
cuting devices,  they  consoled  one  another 
by  quoting  some  text  of  Scripture,  in  justi- 
fication of  their  heartless  conduct.  Thus 
the  Bible  was  made  to  serve  every  conceiv- 
able act  of  tyranny  and  oppression. 

The  code  of  laws  drawn  up  by  Roger 
Williams  and  his  friends  was  a  vast  im- 
provement on  other  Colonial  enactments  ; 
still  the  old  leaven  was  manifest  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  good  people  of  Rhode 
Island — they  tolerated  all  religions  save  the 
Catholic. 

For  the  full,  free  and  perfect  expression 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  it  was  reserved 
for  Catholic  Maryland,  to  take  the  lead  of 
all  the  other  colonies.  Within  the  limits 
of  that  glorious  old  commonwealth,  every 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  117 

man  could  sit  under  his  own  vine  and  fig- 
tree,  and  none  to  molest  or  make  him  afraid. 

History  records  no  greater  persecution 
against  any  class  of  people,  than  the  English 
government  put  in  force  against  its  Catholic 
subjects.  Those  who  had  separated  from 
the  established  Church  fled  to  other  climes, 
but  the  poor  Catholics  were  so  impoverished 
by  penal  laws  that  they  could  not  emigrate ; 
besides  they  disliked  to  leave  forever  that 
old  land  which  was  dedicated  to  the  religion 
of  their  fathers,  and  they  clung  with  fond 
affection  to  the  sites  of  their  old  altars  now 
<1< 'serrated  and  in  ruins. 

Lord  Baltimore,  however,  who  had  re- 
nounced the  religion  of  Henry  and  Elizabeth 
to  become  a  child  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  of 
His  Church,  took  compassion  on  the  suffer- 
ings of  his  co-religionists,  and  resolved  on  a 
plan  to  mitigate  their  misery  by  establish- 
ing a  colony  in  North  America,  where 
Catholics  might  enjoy  a  freedom  of  con- 
science, unknown  to  them  in  Kngland. 
When  he  had  accomplished  this  undertak- 


118  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

ing,  he  formed  a  code  of  laws  that  will  for- 
ever place  him  in  the  first  rank  of  just  and 
wise  lawgivers.  When  the  Ark  and  the 
Dove  (beautiful  names),  landed  their  cargo 
of  poor,  panting,  bleeding  and  abused  Catho- 
lics, with  the  faith  of  martyrs,  and  the  love 
of  Calvary' s  Blessed  Victim  in  their  hearts, 
they  planted  a  cross,  sacred  emblem  of  sal- 
vation, and  knelt  them  down  in  the  shade 
of  venerable  trees,  beneath  the  blue  canopy 
of  heaven,  while  the  holy  sacrifice  of  the 
Mass  was  offered  up  to  Almighty  God,  for 
their  safe  deliverance  from  the  perils  of  the 
ocean  and  the  fiery  persecutions  of  the 
Pharaohs  of  Great  Britain. 

They  next  made  a  friendly  visit  to  the 
Piscataways,  with  whom  they  formed  an 
alliance,  not  with  a  Bible  in  one  hand  and  a 
sword  in  the  other,  like  the  self-sufficient 
saints  of  the  Mayflower,  and  their  descend- 
ants, but  in  a  spirit  of  Christian  charity. 

Lord  Baltimore  and  his  two  missionary 
Fathers  converted  the  tribes,  in  and  around 
their  new  settlement,  and  Chilomacon,  king 


THE    QUESTION   SOLVED.  119 

of  the  Piscataways,  was  solemnly  baptized 
July  5th,  1640.  By  the  honesty,  fair  deal- 
ing and  charity  of  the  colonists,  they  sur- 
rounded themselves  with  friendly  Indians, 
who  embraced,  with  child-like  simplicity, 
the  Christian  faith. 

How  was  it,  on  the  other  hand,  with  our 
godly  Plymouth  settlers?  They  deceived 
the  poor  Indians,  by  all  manner  of  double- 
dealing  and  heartless  conspiracy  ;  they  gave 
them  strong  drink,  and  while  under  the  in- 
fluence of  it,  the  poor  creatures  bartered 
away  their  lands  and  possessions  without 
an  equivalent.  Massasoit,  chief  of  the  tribe 
that  first  welcomed  the  pilgrims,  and  re- 
ceived them  hospitably  into  their  wigwams, 
never  embraced  the  Puritan  faith.  After 
bis  death,  his  son  Philip  was  robbed  of  his 
territories,  many  of  his  tribe  were  murdered 
and  lie  himself  driven  into  exile,  far  away 
from  the  hunting  grounds  of  his  fathers. 
There  \v;is  not  a  single  tribe  converted  to 
New  Kngland  orthodoxy;  on  the  contrary 
many    Of    th<-    Indians    were    hung,    others 


I'.'!)  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

butchered  in  cold  blood,  their  villages 
burned,  while  not  a  few  were  driven  out 
among  unfriendly  tribes  or  sold  into  slavery. 

Peace,  quietness,  and  religious  zeal  per- 
vaded the  colony  of  Maryland,  until  some 
Puritan  refugees  from  Virginia  sought  pro- 
tection and  a  home  there.  The  Catholics, 
little  suspecting  the  designs  of  these  dan- 
gerous men,  took  no  thought  for  their  own 
safety,  having  full  confidence  in  the  power 
of  their  charter.  In  1643,  however,  in  the 
absence  of  Governor  Calvert,  a  rebellion 
was  fomented  through  the  agency  and  deep 
laid  schemes  of  the  new  comers,  led  on  by 
Ingle  and  Claiborne.  These  traitors  to  the 
cause  of  truth  and  humanity  took  supreme 
control  of  the  colony,  banished  all  who 
remained  faithful  to  Lord  Baltimore,  re- 
duced others  to  abject  poverty,  arrested 
the  missionaries,  and  sent  them  back  to 
England  in  chains. 

Tell  me,  now,  you  vain-glorious  boasters, 
who  take  pride  in  every  thing  "great, 
glorious,  and  free,"  are  you  not  assuming 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  121 

too  much  in  claiming  for  your  sires  virtues 
which  they  never  possessed,  and  deeds 
which  they  never  performed  \ 

"What  a  conceited  specimen  of  humanity 
is  your  average  Yankee  preacher  ;  he  fancies 
himself  a  match  for  any  body  and  every 
body ;  he  can  see  through  a  stone  wall, 
while  his  neighbor,  should  he  be  a  Catho- 
lic, cannot  see  the  length  of  his  nose ! 
His  geese  are  all  swans,  while  his  neigh- 
bor' s  ducks  are  veritable  toads ;  his  eyes 
are  clear  as  an  eagle' s,  while  his  neighbor' s 
are  dull  as  an  owlet' s  ;  he  could  swallow  a 
Roman  Doctor  of  Divinity  with  as  much 
ease  as  a  sea-gull  would  a  tad-pole !  He 
possesses  more  knowledge  in  his  sconce, 
after  a  year's  study  in  a  New  England 
Academy,   than   the  combined    wisdom   of 

the  seven   h  11  lulled   bishops  of  the   Keilineiii- 

cal  Council  now  in  Rome!  He  is  a  walk 
ing  Library  of  science  and  theology;  he 
know-  tti«-  beginning  and  the  end  of  every 
thing  that  \v;is.  is,  and  is  to  be;  he  is  per- 
mitted to  know  what  nobody  else  ever 
11 


122  TIIE   QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

knew ;  he  is,  in  fine,  a  perfect  nonesuch ! 
After  all  this  arrogance,  he  very  often 
comes  out  a  minus  quantity  ;  he  enters  the 
field  of  polemics  like  a  lion,  and  comes  out 
like  a  whipped  kitten !  His  powers  of  in- 
vention are  inexhaustible  ;  if  beaten  by  the 
facts  of  history  or  the  sword  of  logic,  he 
invents  new  themes  and  fresh  accusations 
against  his  opponent,  until,  at  last,  he 
comes  down  to  a  regular  system  of  relig- 
ious black-mailing ! 


CHAP.  "VTL 

The  blessings  of  education  when  accompanied  by  religion  — 
pagan  education  — the  establishment  of  the  church  —  its 
benign  influence  on  society  — the  object  of  education  — 
early  training  of  youth. 

ONE  of  the  choicest  blessings  given  to 
mankind  is  a  good,  thorough  educa- 
tion, guided  by  correct  religious  principles. 
It  is  religion,  after  all,  that  softens  the 
obdurate  heart,  polishes  and  refines  man's 
rude  nature,  and  hallows  and  sanctifies 
his  whole  being.  It  is  the  spark  which 
illumines  the  soul,  warms  the  affections, 
and  sheds  a  lustre  over  the  whole  charac- 
ter. Education,  without  religion,  is  not 
conducive  to  the  real  happiness  of  man. 
It  too  often  puffs  him  up  with  pride  and 
vanity;  it  makes  him  selfish  and  egotisti- 
cal ;  it  causes  him  to  refer  the  products  of 
the  genius  which  God  has  given  him  to 
some  superior  or  inherent  quality  which 
he  fancies  to  be  peculiarly  his  own,  so 
that,  instead  of  humbly  acknowledging  liis 
indebtedness  to  the  Author  of  every  good 


124  THE   QUESTION    SOLVED. 

and  perfect  gift,   he  haughtily   seeks   the 
homage  and  reverence  of  his  fellow  men. 

To  impart  instruction  is  a  very  sacred 
office,  and  ought  not  to  be  intrusted  to  the 
careless,  the  bigot,  or  the  unbeliver ;  rather 
should  it  be  to  the  work  of  religious  teach- 
ers, who  know  and  feel  the  weakness  of 
our  humanity,  and  our  dependence  on  a 
power  superior  to  the  natural  instincts  of 
our  own  nature.  If  you  instil  into  the 
expanding  mind  of  youth  nothing  but  the 
idea  of  a  gross  materialism,  your  labor  is 
vain  and  fruitless. 

Let  us  turn  over  the  pages  of  history, 
and  what  do  we  find  but  the  vilest  im- 
morality, degradation,  and  slavery,  spring- 
ing out  from  ancient  Grecian  and  Roman 
civilization,  which  our  modern  historians, 
lecturers,  and  preachers  admire  so  much, 
and  with  great  show  of  learning,  and  not 
a  little  bombast,  deal  out  to  their  admiring 
audiences  in  glowing  eulogy ;  but  not  a 
word  of  the  struggles  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  amid  the  raging  torrents  of  perse- 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  125 

cution,  with  which  kings  and  tyrants 
threatened  to  engulf  her;  but,  thanks  to 
that  august  Being  who  preserved  her,  de- 
spite the  malice  of  her  enemies,  she  still 
lives,  fresh  and  vigorous,  pursuing  her 
sacred  vocation,  that  of  teaching  and  pro- 
claiming man's  duty  to  his  God. 

In  the  days  of  Pericles,  Thucydides,  and 
Sophocles,  the  most  classic  of  the  ancients, 
the  brilliant  Euripides,  Zeno,  and  the  divine 
Phidias,  the  public  school  was  a  theatre 
of  vice,  where  the  worst  instincts  of  the 
human  heart  were  nurtured.  The  animal 
passions  became  so  gross,  that  cannibalism 
was  not  only  practiced,  but  taught.  The 
Stoics  deemed  it  not  unlawful  to  eat  human 
flesh,  :md  even  permitted  children  to  de- 
vour their  own  parents. 

In   tin-  age  of  Rome's  greatness,  Julius 

Csesar  and  .Augustus  were  patrons  of  the 

arts   and    sciences,   and    representatives    of 

the  civilization  of  their  time,  yet,  with  all 

their  l«-:i niin.ir,  elegance,  and  grandetu^  H"''1" 

depravity    sounded    the    lowest    depths. 
11* 


12(5  THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

Julius  Caesar  knew  nothing  of  the  divine 
attribute  of  mercy.  Read  his  character  as 
portrayed  by  Suetonius,  and  then  boast  of 
the  splendors  of  the  golden  age !  Sitting 
on  his  throne  of  gold,  he  would,  with  his 
own  hands,  pluck  out  men's  eyes,  break 
their  limbs,  cut  their  throats,  and  have 
their  bodies  thrown  to  the  dogs  and  birds 
of  prey.  Behold,  on  the  Ides  of  March, 
altars  erected  in  h^jjaor  of  Julius  Caesar, 
stakes  and  inflammable  materials  made 
ready,  and  three  hundred  young  men,  the 
flower  of  Rome's  nobility,  are  slaughtered 
without  reserve  on  that  infernal  day. 

What  has  been  told  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
may  be  said  of  Assyria,  Babylon,  Egypt, 
Lydia,  Persia,  Carthage,  and  the  whole  of 
Asia  Minor.  Blood  and  carnage,  cruelty 
and  oppression,  marked  every  step  of  their 
progress,  until  all  vestige  of  primitive  truth 
had  disappeared  from  the  people. 

No  one  can  deny  the  material  civilization 
of  those  classic  ages.  Science  produced 
ingenious  inventions,  and  noble  and  vast 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  127 

discoveries — history,  eloquence,  poetry, 
architecture,  music,  painting,  and  sculpture 
flourished  with  amazing  sublimity ;  yet 
what  did  they  accomplish  for  poor  human- 
ity? Nothing,  absolutely  nothing.  The 
standard  of  decency  was  reduced  to  the 
level  of  the  brute  creation,  and  below  it. 
Homer  never  sang  a  strain  of  purity,  nor 
Virgil  a  plea  for  mercy.  Woman  was 
debased,  childhood  forsaken  and  cruelly 
butchered,  the  aged  and  infirm  cast  into  the 
Tiber,  or  converted  into  targets  to  be  shot 
at.  The  youth  of  both  sexes  were  demoral- 
ized to  the  most  shameful  degree. 

This  is  but  a  mere  glimmer  of  the  condi- 
tion of  Pagan  society  down  to  the  establish- 
ment of  that  Church  which  was  founded 
upon  a  rock,  and  to  which  our  blessed  Lord 
gave  the  promise  that  the  gates  of  hell 
should  never  prevail. 

And  now  began  the  healing  of  the  nations, 
the  regeneration   of   mankind.      The  sun 
Bhine  of  peace  dawned  upon  the  quivering, 
persecuted  heart  of  humanity,  and  the  long 


128  THE    QUESTION   SOLVED. 

night  of  Gentile  barbarism  began  to  recede 
before  the  light  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Catholic  charity  began  to  extend 
its  benign  influence  everywhere  in  spite  of 
heathen  opposition  and  the  prestige  of  the 
powerful  ones  of  the  earth ;  compassion 
and  benevolence  went  forth  side  by  side, 
instructing  the  ignorant,  giving  hope  and 
consolation  to  the  helpless  and  forsaken, 
and  thus  establishing  a  new  era  of  peace 
and  love  throughout  Europe  and  the  East. 
Blessed  be  God  that  we  live  under  this  dis- 
pensation, and  forbid  it  that  our  earth 
should  ever  again  be  cursed  with  a  civiliza- 
tion without  a  Christ  in  it,  as  the  teachers 
of  modern  infidelity  are  laboring  hard  (per- 
haps unconsciously)  to  bring  about.  False 
teachers  are  abroad  in  the  land,  with  a  lie 
in  their  mouths,  deceiving  the  people  ;  try- 
ing to  seduce  Catholics  away  from  the  faith 
which  was  once  given  to  the  Saints,  and 
otherwise  corrupting  what  is  pure  and  holy 
in  society ;  arid  all  in  the  name  of  liberty 
and  progress ! '  In  every  age  the  Church 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  129 

has  been  attacked  by  Pagan  philosophers, 
Jews,  Infidels  and  heretics  of  every  grade 
and  condition,  from  Simon  the  Sorcerer, 
down  to  Rnfns  W.  Clark,  D.  D.,  of  Albany ; 
and  yet  she  stands  a  tower  of  strength 
against  the  assaults  of  the  enemy —  "  a  pil- 
lar of  clond  by  day,  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by 
night."  What  but  the  power  of  Jehovah 
sustained  her  despite  the  wasting  hand  of 
Time,  while  thrones  and  principalities  have 
passed  away  like  things  that  are  told  ?  Her 
fair  proportions  might  for  a  time  be  shaded 
with  gloom,  and  to  human  vision  lost  to 
view;  but,  like  the  glorious  sun  in  the 
ln-nvmis,  she  emerges  from  the  surrounding 
darkness,  and  Bheds  a  warmth  and  a  lustre 
over  the  face  of  Nature  bringing  faith  and 
hope  and  consolation  to  the  inhabitants  of 
earth. 

The  chief  object  of  education  is  to  make 
man  better  and  happier  in  this  life,  and  to 
fit  him  for  [leaven.  As  well  might  you  ex- 
pect pure  water  from  an  impure  fountain,  as 
to  find  a  well  cultivated,  happy  mind  in  a 


130  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

school  not  established  upon  a  religious 
basis.  The  old  proverb,  "train  up  a  child 
in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old 
he  will  not  depart  from  it,"  is  as  true  now 
as  when  it  fell  from  the  lips  of  King  Solo- 
mon. The  world  has  given  us  proofs  innu- 
merable of  its  verity.  When  Moses  was 
brought  up  in  the  royal  court  of  Pharaoh, 
amid  the  splendors  of  nobility,  surrounded 
by  the  wisdom  and  learning  of  Egyptian 
philosophers,  what  was  it  that  ennobled  his 
mind,  purified  his  heart,  and  shielded  him 
from  the  contaminating  influences  which  sur- 
rounded him,  if  it  was  not  the  voice  of  God, 
speaking  to  his  young  heart,  through  the 
person  of  his  mother,  who  not  only  nourished 
him,  but  instilled  into  his  mind  the  faith  of 
Abraham,  and  the  promises  of  the  Almighty; 
so  that  when  he  grew  to  man's  estate  he  re- 
fused to  be  called  the  son  of  Pharaoh's 
daughter  ?  Rather  would  he  suffer  affliction 
with  the  people  of  God,  for  a  time,  than 
enjoy  the  luxury  of  an  idolatrous  court. 
Now,  behold  the  contrast :    King  Nebu- 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  131 

chadnezzar,  nourished  by  a  wild  goat,  grew 
up  with  low  animal  passions,  perpetrating 
all  manner  of  sin  and  crime  against  God, 
until,  by  a  just  judgment  from  Heaven,  he 
was  turned  from  a  royal  palace  to  associate 
with  the  beasts  of  the  field,  the  companions 
of  his  early  life. 

The  Emperor  Caligula,  though  born  of  re- 
putable parents,  was  nursed  by  a  rude  mas- 
culine woman,  with  brutish  strength,  and  a 
bearded  face,  ferocious  and  vindictive  in 
disposition.  The  child  partook  of  her  de- 
pravity, and  all  history  records  no  greater 
monster. 

South  i  s  by  far  the  most  important  period 
in  the  life  of  man  ;  it  is  the  season  of  early 
Impressions,  when  character  is  formed  for 
good  or  for  evil,  for  honor  or  for  shame. 
How  necessary,  therefore,  to  shield  it  from 
the  contamination  of  sinful  actions,  and 
make  it  acquainted  with  the  science  of  sal 
ration,  which  consists  in  knowing,  loving 
and  serving  Qod. 


CHAP.  VIII. 

Catholics  do  not  desire  the  destruction  of  the  public  school 
system  — their  objections  to  it  as  it  now  stands  — the  bible 
too  sacred  to  be  profaned  in  the  school-room  —  clark  on 
catholic  ignorance  — bancroft's  opinions  —  catholic  and 
protestant  missions  —  protestant  knowledge  of  the  catho- 
lic church  — why  catholics  object  to  reading  the  bible 
in  public  schools  — catholics  not  willing  to  separate  secu- 
lar and  religious  education  —  dr.  clark  and  the  cincin- 
nati school  board  — he  misrepresents  the  catholic  claim 
—  opinion  ok  hartford  courant  and  other  papers  on  the 
"school  question "— protestant  ministers  exciting  tub 
people  to  tumult  — the  wrath  of  the  "observer  man" — 
db.  clark  as  a  weather-cock  — "  why  do  catholics  come 

AMONG  CS?" 

CATHOLICS  do  not  wish  to  "batter 
down"  or  demolish  the  public  schools, 
as  your  sectarian  leaders  assert ;  they  only 
wish  the  public  school  system,  which  is  as 
much  theirs  as  yours,  to  be  so  modified  as 
to  meet  the  wishes  of  all.  We  object  to 
having  Protestant  and  infidel  teachers  to  in- 
struct our  children ;  we  object  to  text-books 
which  contain  sentiments  not  in  unison 
with  our  theology,  or  reflecting  on  our 
principles ;  we  object  to  lazy  parsons,  un- 
authorized laymen,  and  sickly  sentimental- 
ists, obtruding  themselves  into  the  school- 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  133 

room,  where  our  Catholic  children  are 
seated,  and  filling  their  young,  susceptible 
minds  with  false  notions  of  religious  educa- 
tion, and  material  progress ;  and  we  object 
to  the  reading  and  studying  of  a  corrupted 
Bible,  or  allowing  our  children  to  interpret 
it,  according  to  their  fancy,  as  Protest- 
ants do. 

I  have  been,  myself,  in  schools  where  the 
Bible  was  made  a  text-book,  and  its  study 
imperative  on  every  scholar  in  the  institu 
tion,  and  yet  I  failed  to  discover  that  it 
made  the  students  any  better  or  more 
moral  tlian  where  it  was  excluded  alto- 
gether. In  my  opinion  it  made  them  worse, 
for  •  1: 1 1 1 1 i  1  i ; i  rity  breeds  contempt. ' '  It  used 
to  grieve  me  to  witness  the  uses  it  was 
occasionally  made  to  serve  —  from  lighting 
a  cigar  or  a  lire,  to  the  most  menial  office. 
1  have  often  seen  it  side  by  side  with  the 
inn-!  obscene  and  scandalous  publications 
that  ever  issued  from  a  vile  press.  Many 
a  tiim-  have  1  observed  young  boys  pick 

out   pi  in   the  Canticles  of  Solomon, 

1  .' 


134  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

and  pass  them  over  to  the  opposite  sex, 
and  vice  versa.  I  was  only  young  then, 
and  never  heard  the  question  of  the  "Bible 
in  the  Common  Schools"  debated;  but 
young  as  I  was,  I  could  not  help  coming 
to  the  conclusion,  that  had  the  holy  book 
been  read  only  in  the  family  circle,  by  way 
of  narrative  or  christian  history,  and  its 
sacred  character  interpreted  only  by  God' s 
ministers,  it  would  have  been  safer  and 
more  conducive  to  public  and  private 
morals  ;  and  both  youth  and  old  age  would 
have  a  greater  respect  for  it. 

In  refutation  of  Dr.  Clark' s  calumny  con- 
cerning the  universal  ignorance  of  Cathol- 
icism, by  which  he  insinuates  that  the 
Church  opposes  the  diffusion  of  useful 
knowledge,  I  need  only  point  to  the  Catho- 
lic Almanac  for  the  past  year,  and  it  will 
not  only  surprise  his  hearers  to  read  therein 
what  the  church  is  doing  for  education,  but 
make  them  ashamed  of  a  man  who  could 
make  such  lying  statements. 

Nearly   all   the   religious   orders  of  this 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  135 

Continent  are  engaged  in  the  work  of 
education.  From  British  America  to  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific,  in  the  cities  and  on  the  plains, 
along  the  mountain  ranges,  and  down  the 
Pacific  slopes,  they  give  every  variety  of 
education  from  the  highest  branches  of 
philosophy  to  the  common  rudiments  of 
knowledge. 

George  Bancroft,  a  son  of  Massachusetts, 
and  from  whom  Catholics  could  not  expect- 
much  favor,  affirms,  in  his  valuable  history 
of  the  United  States,  that  "religious  zeal, 
not  less  than  commercial  ambition,  had  in- 
fluenced France  to  recover  Canada ;  and 
Cnampladn  Its  governor,  whose  imperishable 
name  will  rival  with  posterity  the  fame  of 
Smith  and  Hudson,  ever  disinterested  and 
compassionate,  full  <>t*  honor  and  probity,  of 
ardent  devotion  and  burning  zeal,  esteemed 
tin-  salvation  of  a.  soul  worth  more  than  the 
oonqnesl  of  an  empire." 

Long   before   the   stony  hearted    Puritans 

placed  foot  on  what  Bishop  Spanlding  calls 


136  THE   QUESTION  SOLVED. 

the  "Yankee  Blarney  Stone,"  the  faithful 
ministers  of  the  cross  planted  missions  in 
the  eastern  part  of  Maine.  The  poor  Fran- 
ciscans, with  their  lives  in  their  hands,  pene- 
trated into  the  land  of  the  Mohawks  and 
Wyandots,  not1  protected  by  American 
counsels,  or  under  the  muzzles  of  English 
guns,  like  many  of  our  modern  sort,  who 
have  gone  to  India  and  China. 

The  Catholic  missionary  goes  forth  in  the 
name  of  the  God  of  Hosts,  with  his  crucifix 
in  his  hand,  and  the  word  of  divine  power 
in  his  heart,  willing  to  lay  down  his  own 
life  to  save  the  souls  of  others. 

Poor  Father  Le  Caron  led  the  life  of  a 
beggar,  partaking  of  the  charity  of  the  sav- 
ages as  he  journeyed  through  the  wilderness 
of  the  newly  discovered  country,  passing 
from  one  hostile  tribe  to  another,  sowing  the 
seeds  of  christian  truth  and  love  among  a 
race  of  people  at  once  savage,  powerful  and 
warlike,  until  he  gained  the  great  waters  of 
Niagara,  and  took  up  his  abode  with  the 
Hurons. 


THE   QUESTION    SOLVED.  137 

Bancroft  says,  that  "to  confirm  the  mis- 
sions the  first  measure  was  to  establish  a 
college  in  New  France,  and  the  parents  of 
the  Marquis  de  G-amache,  pleased  with  his 
pious  importunity,  assented  to  his  entering 
the  order  of  Jesuits,  and  added  from  their 
ample  fortunes,  the  means  of  endowing  a 
Seminary  for  education  at  Quebec."  Thus 
we  see  that  Catholics  established  the  first 
institution  of  learning  in  America.  Let  us 
make  a  few  more  extracts  from  Bancroft. 

"The  fires  of  charity  being  enkindled,  the 
Duchess  D'Aguillon,  aided  by  her  uncle, 
Cardinal  Richelieu,  endowed  a  public  hos- 
pital dedicated  to  the  Son  of  God,  whose 
blood  was  shed  in  mercy  for  all  mankind." 
"From  the  hospital  nuns  of  Dieppe,  there 
were  selected  the  youngest  twenty-two,  to 
brave  the  famine  and  rigors  of  Canada,  in 
their  patienl  mission  of  benevolence." 

"  The  same  religious  enthusiasm  inspiring 
Madame  de  la  Peltier,  a  young  and  opulent 
widow  of  Alenc^on,  she,  with  the  aid  of  a 
nun  of  Dieppe,  and  two  others  from  Tours, 


19* 


138  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

established  the  Ursuline  Convent  for  girls. 
*  *  *  The  venerable  ash-tree  still  lives 
beneath  which  Mary  of  the  Incarnation,  so 
famed  for  chastened  piety,  genius  and  good 
judgment  toiled  for  the  education  of  the 
Huron  children." 

By  a  like  spirit,  and  after  the  same  man- 
ner, have  Catholics  continued  their  mis- 
sionary labors,  combining  education  and 
religion,  down  to  the  present  day.  Their 
institutions  are  conducted  by  a  self-sacri- 
ficing class  of  teachers,  who  have  given  up 
the  world  and  all  its  allurements  to  devote 
themselves  in  an  especial  manner  to  glorify 
God ;  to  secure  their  own  salvation,  and  to 
instruct  the  ignorant  and  the  depraved  not 
only  in  what  is  useful  in  society,  but  to 
point  out  to  them  the  ways  of  truth  and 
holiness,  the  only  road  to  Heaven.  Beau- 
tiful, indeed,  is  such  a  life,  and  highly  to  be 
commended ! 

And  now,  dear  reader,  think  you  that 
such  noble  sacrifices  are  made  to  corrupt 
the  heart  and  brutalize  the  mind,  or  compel 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  139 

"universal   ignorance,"    as    the    Reverend 
libeler,  of  the  Dutch  Church,  asserts? 

To  hear  this  man  rant  about  education, 
one  would  suppose  that  Providence  consti- 
tuted him  grand  censor  of  the  educational 
system.  He  makes  one  assertion  after 
another,  all  of  which  are  nothing  more  than 
cool  assumptions  ;  he  never  inquires  about 
the  right  or  wrong  of  a  thing,  but  pitches  in 
like  a  drunken  bully,  indiscriminately,  to 
exhibit  his  strength  at  knock  down  argu- 
ments. He  must  entertain  a  poor  opinion 
of  the  well  educated  portion  of  his  flock, 
when  he  offers  them  such  devil's  venison. 
They  cannot  help  knowing  that  such  accu- 
sations are  a  fraud,  and  will  not  go  down 
with  any  kind  of  relish ;  still  the  majority 
will  accept  these  absurdities  and  swallow 
them  down  stock  mid  fluke. 

It  astonishes  tin'  to  think  how  wofully 
ignorant  Protestants  are,  concerning  tin; 
affairs  of  the  Catholic  Church;  what  she 
has  done  and  is  now  doing  for  the  welfare 
of  society  ;    unless  they  have  adopted  the. 


140  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

system  of  the  old  Greeks,  who  believed  in 
anything  and  everything  bnt  the  truth. 

Protestantism  is  only  a  man-constructed 
system,  take  it  as  you  will ;  it  is  of  human 
authority,  liable  to  err,  and  cannot,  there- 
fore, claim  Christ  for  its  foundation. 
Catholics,  on  the  contrary,  can  prove  their 
Church  to  be  that  repository  of  divine 
truth  over  which  the  Holy  Spirit  hovers, 
giving  her  light  and  holiness  whereby  to 
teach  and  govern  with  authority  ;  deceiving 
no  man,  and  claiming  obedience  from  all. 
They  cheerfully  accept  her  kind  offices, 
having  full  confidence  in  her  teachings  and 
declarations.  Not  so  with  Protestants,  they 
keep  floating  about  on  an  ocean  of  doubt 
and  uncertainty  —  they  have  no  faith,  they 
have  only  opinions,  and  opinions  differ. 

It  is  neither  fair  nor  honest  in  Dr.  Clark 
to  prejudice  the  people,  by  wrongfully  in- 
forming them  that  it  is  the  object  of  Catho- 
lics to  exclude  the  Bible  from  the  common 
schools  ;  and  that  "  the  priests  would 
rather  have  the  children  grow  up  assassins 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  141 

than  allow  them  to  have  recourse  to  the 
Bible."  Now,  if  the  people  of  the  First 
Church  have  any  regard  for  truth,  they 
never  would  pay  a  man  a  large  salary  to 
uphold  falsehood  and  calumny. 

I  do  not  suppose,  for  a  moment,  that  they 
are  so  utterly  blinded  by  this  man' s  state- 
ments, as  to  believe  with  him  that  there  is 
any  Catholic  priest  in  the  world,  who  would 
prefer  a  little  child  to  grow  up  an  assassin, 
rather  than  to  read  the  Bible.  A  man  who 
would  make  such  an  assertion  as  that  is  no 
better  than  a  murderer  himself.  If  his  people 
can  stand  such  lies,  their  consciences  must 
be  as  dry  as  autumn  leaves,  else  they  are  as 
wicked  as  he  is,  and  partake  of  his  crime. 

It  is  true,  that  both  priest  and  people  are 
opposed  to  reading  what  they  deem  a 
corrupted  version  of  the  Bible,  and  the 
sinking  of  Protestant  hymns  in  schools 
which  they  are  taxed  to  support.  What 
riirlit  have  Protestants,  any  more  than 
Catholics  01  Jews,  to  assume  to  themselves 
privilegee  which  the  Constitution  does  not 


142  TIIE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

allow  them?  Is  it  fair  for  Protestants  to 
insist  on  giving  a  religious  bias  to  a  school 
where  the  majority  are  Catholics,  as  is  the 
case  in  our  large  cities  ?  Catholic  parents  are 
bound  in  conscience,  to  train  up  their  child- 
ren in  the  faith  which  they  themselves  pro- 
fess, until  they  arrive  at  the  use  of  reason  ; 
and  hence,  their  great  objection  to  any  sys- 
tem, public  or  private,  which  would  tend  to 
weaken  their  belief,  or  place  the  subject  of 
religion  unfairly  before  them. 

For  the  same  reason  they  object  to  institu- 
tions of  learning,  where  religion  is  entirely 
excluded.  They  hold  that  education  with- 
out religion,  as  before  proved,  is  unreliable 
if  not  wicked  —  they  hold  that  moral  and 
religious  principles  are  the  true  basis  of 
human  society,  and  the  earlier  their  child- 
ren are  so  instructed,  the  better  for  their 
own  being,  and  the  welfare  of  the  State. 

This  is  the  whole  matter  in  a  few  simple 
words,  and  if  Protestants  attach  any  other 
motive  to  the  Catholic  claim*  they  either 
misunderstand  it  or  willfully  corrupt  the 


THE    QUESTION"   SOLVED.  143 

aims  of  the  Church.  We  know  and  appre- 
ciate the  value  to  the  State  of  a  good  sys- 
tem of  public  schools,  and  it  has  always 
been  a  cardinal  doctrine  in  the  economy  of 
the  Church,  to  combine  religious  instruction 
with  secular  education,  feeling  assured  that 
upon  such  a  basis,  the  nation  is  most  secure. 
Man  is  naturally  a  religious  being,  but  sub- 
ject as  he  is  to  the  corrupting  influences  of 
his  own  weak  nature,  and  the  depravity  of 
society,  the  training  of  his  youth  must  have 
a  religious  bearing,  in  order  to  be  beneficial 
and  lasting.  This  is  why  Catholics  have  been 
milking  such  efforts  to  establish  schools  of 
their  own,  and  for  which  they  have  made  very 
great  sacrifices.  They  prefer  their  children 
to  have  a  small  share  of  worldly  knowledge, 
with  sound  religious  principles,  than  to  have 
tin-in  converted  into  polished  Pagans,  with 
their  heads  full  of  science  and  no  love  of 
do(]  in   their  hearts. 

Dr.  Clark  has  allowed  himself  to  become 
so  inflated  lately,  od  the  "school  question," 
that  he  swelled  out  like  a  balloon,  but  the 


144  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

least  prick  of  common  sense  would  let  out 
all  the  gas,  and  his  great  swelling  words  of 
vanity  would  vanish  into  thin  air,  leaving 
nothing  behind  save  a  bad  odor. 

The  action  of  the  school  board  of  Cincin- 
nati, has  been  haunting  him  like  a  ghost,  so 
that  his  brain  has  become  addled.  He  rants 
and  raves  in  his  pulpit  concerning  the  ques- 
tion of  the  "Bible  in  the  common  schools  " 
so  much,  that  if  another  city  would  follow 
the  example  of  Cincinnati  the  Doctor  would 
either  have  apoplexy  or  be  sent  to  the  State 
Lunatic  Asylum. 

The  reverend  gentleman  is  not  just  in  his 
allusions  to  the  Western  Watchman.  Why 
did  he  not  quote  the  whole  article  from  that 
paper  (which  for  the  most  part  was  ironical) 
instead  of  culling  passages  from  it,  and 
stringing  them  together  as  best  suited  his 
purpose,  giving  a  wrong  interpretation  of 
said  article,  and  changing  the  sense  entirely, 
thereby  doing  great  injustice  to  the  editor 
of  that  paper. 

German  infidelity  had  more  to  do  with 


THE  QUESTION  SOLVED.  145 

casting  out  the  Bible  and  all  other  religious 
instruction  from  the  schools  of  the  "Queen 
City,"  than  Catholics  had.  The  latter,  if 
compelled  to  send  their  children  to  public 
schools,  would  much  rather  retain  the 
Protestant  Bible  than  have  all  religious  in- 
struction banished  from  them. 

None  but  a  madman  would  dare  to  make 
such  assertions  as  Dr.  Clark  has  lately.  He 
has  not  put  the  question  fairly  before  his 
people,  he  was  so  one-sided  in  the  whole 
matter,  that  it  was  a  wonder  he  did  not  tip 
over.  As  we  have  said  before,  the  commu- 
ntiy  being  composed  of  different  denomina- 
tions having  the  same  political  rights,  the 
government  is  bound  to  protect  them  ;  so 
that  Catholics  and  Protestants  are  on  an 
equal  footing  before  the  law,  and  the  State 
is  obliged  to  protect  both  in  the  free  exercise 
of  their  religions  tenets.  This  being  the 
.  Catholics  have  a  perfect  right  to  ma ke 
demands  upon  ih''  Legislature  to  alter  any 
enactments  which  curtail  them  in  the  free 
ezerci  -••  of  their  faith.  The  school  question 
L3 


14(3  TIIE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

with  us  is  a  matter  of  conscience.  But  the 
Doctor  says,  if  you  grant  such  privileges 
to  Romanists  you  must  grant  them  to  all 
other  denominations,  if  they  desire  it.  This 
does  not  follow,  for  the  Church  views  all 
sects,  from  Calvinism  to  Atheism,  as  pro- 
testing against  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ, 
so  that  all  the  sectaries  are  Protestants  to 
us.  What  difference  does  it  make  to  Prot- 
estants if  their  children  are  educated  with 
spiritualists,  infidels  and  nothingarians  — 
they  all  go  on  the  progressive  principle, 
and  the  public  school  as  now  constituted 
is  just  the  thing. 

The  chief  aim,  however,  of  Protestants  is 
to  use  the  State  against  the  Church,  hence 
they  cry  out  "public  instruction,"  as  a 
blind  to  destroy  Catholic  faith.  It  is  a 
hatred  of  the  Church  that  makes  them  so 
clamorous  for  public  instruction  as  it  is  now 
devised.  If  they  profess  such  a  love  for 
Jesus  Christ  and  His  inspired  word,  how 
comes  it  that  they  fraternize  so  easily  with 
Unitarians,  Universalists,  and  Free  Thinkers 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  147 

of  every  grade  ?  If  they  desire  the  perpe- 
tuity of  the  Christian  religion,  let  them  lay 
down  the  arms  of  their  warfare  and  submit 
to  the  mild  authority  of  the  Holy  Roman 
and  Apostolic  Church  —  listen  attentively 
to  her  sweet  and  gentle  counsels  —  obey  with 
Christian  fortitude  all  her  mandates,  and 
enlist  with  us  under  the  banner  of  the  cross 
in  making  common  cause  against  infidelity, 
which  threatens  to  demoralize  society.  As 
it  is  now,  Protestants  are  only  strengthen- 
ing tin;  citadel  of  unbelief,  and  in  no  way 
can  they  accomplish  that  result  better  than 
in  seeking  to  make  the  State,  instead  of  the 
Church,  the  educator  of  the  rising  genera- 
tioii. 

There  are  many  able  and  right  minded 
Protectants  who  concur  with  us  in  the  belief 
thai  religion  in  society  is  its  only  safeguard, 
and  to  make  that  sentiment  popular  and 
lasting  it  must  be  diffused  into  the  common 
Schools.       Many    of  them,    too,    call    for    a 

modification  of  the  school  system,  in  order 
to  relieve  Catholics  from  a  Protestant  or 
infidel  ascendancy 


148  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

A  writer  in  the  Hartford  Courant  speaks 
to  its  readers  as  follows:  "Although  a 
Protestant,  I  sympathize  very  much  with 
those  honest  Romanists  who  deplore  the 
present  purely  secular  aspect  of  our  public 
schools,  and  believe  with  them,  that  the 
shutting  out  of  ethics  and  Christian  doc- 
trine from  them  makes  us  virtual  pagans, 
and  gives  the  support  of  the  State  to  virtual 
paganism.  Whether  a  few  verses  of  the 
Bible  shall  be  read,  or  not,  at  the  opening 
of  the  daily  session,  is,  I  think,  a  purely 
superficial  question,  and  may  well  give 
way  to  deeper  issues.  For  my  own  part, 
I  feel  that  we  are  miserably  short  handed 
in  our  efforts  to  impress  such  religious 
truth  on  the  young,  as  shall  prepare  them 
to  enter  upon  life  with  a  wholesome  desire 
to  conform  to  the  laws  of  God.  And  seeing 
how  little  good  ethical  teaching  there  is, 
and  how  feebly  religion  gets  any  hold  on 
our  youth,  I  cannot  wonder  at  the  excesses 
which  are  displayed ;  at  the  want  of  honor, 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  149 

respect  for  law,  and  at  the  practical  atheism 
which  abound." 

The  wrathy  old  gentleman  of  the  New 
York  Observer,  notwithstanding  he  talks 
about  the  "coming  fight,"  favors  a  refor- 
mation in  the  school  system.  He  says, 
"the  State  teaches  too  much.  What  the 
State  is  required  to  do  is  to  see  to  it,  that 
all  its  children  are  taught  to  read  and 
write,  and  to  understand  such  things  as 
are  essential  to  good  citizenship.  There 
is  no  good  reason  why  A  should  be  taxed 
to  enable  the  children  of  B  to  learn  Latin, 
music,  or  drawing,  or  any  one  of  the 
twenty  studies  now  taught  in  the  public 
schools.  Our  public  school  system  needs 
to  be  overhauled.  The  religious  question 
is  pressing  hard  upon  the  popular  mind 
;iml  heart.  Perhaps  tin;  solution  of  all 
these  questions  will  be  found  in  leaving 
the  subject  of  education  to  the  voluntary 
action  of  tin-  people,  as  religion  is  now 
left.     Thifl  plan   is   finding  :il>l<-  advocates 


|:;! 


150  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

The  whole  subject  needs  to  be  examined 
carefully  and  speedily." 

The  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce 
advocates  "the  entire  separation  of  the 
educational  process  from  State  authority. 
Youth  needs  the  higher  sanctions  of  re- 
ligion in  every  department  of  culture,  and 
this  cannot  be  secured  in  a  State  school 
where  there  is  no  State  church." 

The  New  York  Tablet  claims  "two  ways 
in  which  the  State  can  honestly  and  justly 
deal  with  the  school  question.  It  must 
either  divide  the  schools  in  fair  propor- 
tion, and  give  to  Catholics  the  control  of 
their  division,  and  to  Protestants  or  non- 
Catholics,  the  control  of  theirs ;  or  adopt, 
in  education  as  in  religion,  the  voluntary 
system,  and  leave  to  each  denomination  to 
establish,  support  and  manage  schools  for 
itself  in  its  own  way,  without  any  more 
public  support  or  interference  than  is  law- 
ful in  ecclesiastical  matters.  The  last  is 
the  proper  way ;  indeed,  the  only  consistent 
method  of  dealing  with  the  question,  be- 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  151 

cause  education  is  a  function  of  the  Church, 
not  of  the  State.  As  we  have,  and  can 
have,  no  public  or  State  church,  so  we 
can  consistently  have  no  public  or  State 
schools." 

And  the  New  York  Daily  Times  remarks  : 
"It  may  be  doubted,  whether  it  is  the  busi- 
ness of  the  government  to  teach  school,  any 
more  than  to  teach  religion." 

Catholics  do  not  desire  the  system  of  com- 
mon schools  abolished  ;  all  we  want  is  our 
proportion  of  the  public  moneys  —  the  selec- 
tion of  our  teachers,  and  course  of  studies, 
such  as  would  meet  the  approbation  of  our 
spi ritual  counselors.  In  all  other  respects 
lei  them  remain  under  the  boards  of  public 
instruction.  In  the  present  system,  T  fail  to 
di-eover  religious  equality,  but  I  can  very 
easily  see  a  Protestant  and  Infidel  ascend- 
ancy. The  State  has  no  right  to  educate  our 
children-  wq  hold  it  to  be  the  office  of  the 
Church.  This  is  nothing  new  the  Church 
!      been  the  educator  from  the  beginning. 

If  the  State  Ligislature  will  not  grant  us 


THE   QUESTION  SOLVED. 

the  reform  we  need,  let  it  not  tax  us  to  sup- 
port a  system  at  variance  with  our  religious 
convictions.  Supposing  the  school  law  was 
modified,  so  as  to  grant  Catholics  separate 
schools,  it  would  in  no  wise  abolish  the  sys- 
tem as  it  now  is  for  Protestants.  To  them 
it  would  be  just  the  same.  I  think  it  would 
be  better  for  both  parties,  Protestant  as  well 
as  Catholic,  to  have  a  change,  as  there  would 
arise  a  competition  which  would  stimulate 
to  excellence  and  proficiency,  and  place  the 
standard  of  education  higher  than  it  ever 
was  before. 

Protestant  ministers  are  afraid  that  this 
question  will  come  fairly  and  squarely  before 
the  people.  They  know  and  feel  that  Catho- 
lics have  the  best  end  of  the  argument  — 
that  all  the  logic  and  justice  is  upon  their 
side,  and  when  they  find  themselves  driven 
to  the  wall,  they  threaten  vengeance  if  we 
persevere  in  our  just  demands.  Hear  the 
New  York  Observer,  the  bluest  sheet  of  Cal- 
vinism now  in  existence.  "We  say  again, 
let  Romanists  and  their  friends    beware; 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  153 

there  is  fire  slumbering  under  the  dead 
ashes  of  the  present.  It  is  not  safe  to  drive 
Protestants  to  the  wall,  and  batter  down 
their  institutions  in  their  very  faces.  Pro- 
voke not  —  rather  we  would  say,  compel 
not  —  an  attitude  of  hostility  that  all  good 
men  would  deplore." 

Another  choleric  gentleman  in  New  York 
who  styles  himself  a  Reverend  Doctor,  but 
does  not  believe  in  the  divinity  of  Christ, 
threatens  as  follows :  "  We  warn  our  Roman 
Catholic  fellow-citizens  of  what  is  in  store  for 
them,  if  they  continue  to  press  their  claim 
to  break  up  our  national  system  of  pub- 
lic schools.  They  will  sooner  or  later  bring- 
on  a  civil  war,  in  which  they  and  their 
churches  will  be  swept,  as  by  a  whirlwind, 
from  th'- land."  And  the  great  Dr.  Clark, 
who  turned  his  back  on  Congregationalism, 
to  become  a  Dutch  Reformed  parson,  has 
ottered  the  same  in  substance,  though  we 
cannot  give  his  precise  words,  for  he  spoke 
as  fiercely  and  with  as  much  vehemence  as 


154  THE  QUESTION   SOLVED. 

an  angry  Malay,  with  knife  in  hand,  running 
a  muck. 

What  a  similarity  of  sentiment  between 
Unitarians  and  Calvinists  ;  they  might  form 
a  union  yet,  a  kind  of  marriage,  between 
the  adder  and  the  scorpion. 

Dr.  Clark  asks,  why  do  Catholics  come 
among  us  with  a  foreign  religion  ?  The  same 
question  was  asked  by  the  Romans  in  the 
days  of  the  Apostles.  They  accused  the 
early  Christians  of  bringing  a  foreign  religion 
among  them,  which  threatened  to  subvert 
their  institutions,  and  bring  destruction  to 
the  Empire.  Hence,  laws  were  enacted 
against  them ;  they  were  put  to  the  fire  and 
the  sword,  and  obliged  to  flee  into  the  caves 
and  fastnesses  of  the  earth.  But  the  God 
whom  they  served,  in  His  own  good  time  and 
pleasure,  brought  them  forth,  like  gold  tried 
in  the  furnace,  full  of  faith  and  the  Spirit 
of  their  Master.  Their  cause  triumphed  in 
the  end,  for  theirs  were  the  principles  and 
practices  of  virtue,  truth  and  godliness  ; 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  155 

wliile  their  persecutors  fell  to  rise  no  more, 
to  either  power  or  dominion. 

The  Doctor  further  says,  "we  tolerate 
Romanists,  and  yet  they  are  not  satisfied." 
Now,  who  is  this  "we"  and  "us,"  who 
seem  to  form  a  copartnership  with  the 
reverend  lecturer?  Does  he  mean  the 
descendants  of  the  Dutch  settlers  and  the 
Plymouth  Colony,  or  the  sectaries  in  gen- 
eral, such  as  Presbyterians,  Dutch  Reform- 
ers, Baptists,  Unitarians,  Universalists, 
Spiritualists,  Free  Lovers,  Free  Thinkers, 
Infidels  and  Atheists  ?  If  this  is  the  firm 
of  which  Dr.  Clark  is  a  leading  member,  we 
do  not  envy  him  his  associates  :  they  are  all 
•  hips  of  the  same  block  —  they  cannot  be 
mistaken,  because  of  their  strong  family 
resemblance.  Let  me  tell  that  firm,  that  if 
it  pursues  an  aggressive  and  unjust  policy 
toward  its  neighbors,  it  will  become  bank- 
rupt, and  will  not  be  able  to  pay  one  per 
cent  "u(  of  its  spiritual  treasury. 

This  assumption  of  the  Doctor's  is  laugh- 
able, to  say  the  leasl   -it  is  nonsense  and 


156  TIIE  QUESTION   SOLVED. 

worse  —  it  is  simply  ridiculous.  Let  him 
study  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  his 
country  a  little  more  before  he  comes  for- 
ward again  with  such  balderdash. 

We  spurn  his  toleration,  and  laugh  at  his 
threats ;  we  shall  act  as  freemen  should,  and 
demand  equal  rights  with  him.  We  will 
take  part  in  all  questions  relating  to  the 
public  weal,  and  stand  up  like  a  wall  of 
brass  against  the  encroachments  and  injus- 
tice of  Protestant  tyranny. 


CHAP.  IX. 

The  feesch  revolution  and  the  pbotestant  educational 
system— education  in  england  before  the  reformation 
—  the  church  in  the  middle  ages— mr.  kay's  travels  in 
europe— his  estimate  of  catholic  and  protestant  edu- 
cation—statistics—the prosperity  of  catholic  colleges 
and  universities  during  the  middle  ages  —  education  in 
england  after  the  reformation  —  catholics  do  not  hate 
the  bible— protestant  boasting. 

THE  French  Revolution  had  more  to  do 
in  bringing  about  public  instruction,  or  a 
State  system  of  schools,  in  the  Protestant 
countries  of  Europe,  than  any  movement 
Protestants  had  set  on  foot  toward  that  end. 
The  sovereigns  were  frightened  into  it,  fear- 
ing the  consequences  which  would  be  likely 
to  follow,  if  man's  nature  was  allowed  to 
give  way  to  the  passions,  uncontrolled  by 
education  and  religion ;  for,  as  the  New 
York  Tahiti  affirms,  it  was  the  result  of 
godless  schools,  and  the  spirit  which  con- 
<••  ived  and  planned  them,  that  brought 
Louis  XVI  to  the  guillotine. 
The  Church  has  not  existed  for  eighteen 

Centuries  without  taking  cognizance  of  pass- 

ing  events.     She  has  seen  the  rise  and  fall 

11 


158  THE   QUESTION"  SOLVED. 

of  nations ;  her  advice,  therefore,  is  prudent 
and  healthful.  She  has  witnessed  the  ruin 
and  desolation  that  irreligion  brought  upon 
the  people ;  she  therefore  warns  her  children 
to  beware  of  institutions  where  reason  is 
deified  and  Christian  ethics  abolished. 

But  Dr.  Clark  says  that  Catholicism  is  uni- 
versal ignorance  —  Protestantism,  universal 
education.  When  he  conceived  that  wicked 
fabrication  he  knew  he  was  telling  a  lie,  but 
a  lie  is  nothing  to  him  when  he  has  a  point  to 
gain.  He  belongs  to  that  class  of  whom  it 
is  said,  that  ' '  the  words  of  their  mouth  were 
smoother  than  butter,  but  war  was  in  their 
hearts ;  their  words  were  softer  than  oil, 
yet  were  they  drawn  swords." 

Without  referring  to  all  the  civilized  coun- 
tries that  have  been  instructed  and  con- 
verted to  Christianity  by  Catholic  enterprise 
we  may,  while  passing,  allude  to  a  few,  but 
particularly  England,  that  nation  which 
Dr.  Clark  seems  to  think  the  Protestant 
Paradise. 

Was  there  no  education  in  England  until 


THE  QUESTION  SOLVED.  159 

the  time  of  Henry  VIII,  Somerset  and 
Elizabeth  ?  three  precious  murderers,  as  the 
Edinburgh  Bevieio  designates  them,  to  wit : 
"Henry,  the  murderer  of  his  wives  ;  Somer- 
set, murderer  of  his  brother  ;  and  Elizabeth, 
murderess  of  her  guest."  What  a  glorious 
triangle  to  build  the  Protestant  church 
upon ! 

When  England  was  Catholic  the  nation 
was  studded  all  over  with  religious  and 
educational  establishments  —  churches,  con- 
vents and  monasteries,  had  schools  attached 
to  each,  besides  the  great  colleges,  diocesan 
seminaries  and  private  tuitions.  One-fourth 
of  that  island  was,  in  line,  devoted  to  educa- 
t  ion.  religion  and  charity,  so  that,  if  we  take 
into  consideration  the  age,  population  and 
wealth,  it  is  a  marvel  that  so  much  was  ac- 
complished for  the  instruction  of  youth; 
far  a  hundred  received  a  collegiate  educa- 
tion then,  to  <>ne  who  now  enjoys  a  like 
privilege.  The  printing  press  was  not  yet 
invented,  so  thai  their  books  were  in  manu- 
BCripl  and  Of  great  value.     All  honor  to  the 


1G0  THE  QUESTION  SOLVED. 

industry  and  perseverance  of  those  good  old 
monks,  who  night  and  day  labored  inces- 
santly   to    supply  the  demand   education 
made  upon  them.     Did  this  look  like  ' '  uni- 
versal ignorance"  you  man  of  easy  times  ? 
If  you  were  a  just,  upright,  honest  man,  you 
would  praise,  rather  than  abuse,  those  glori- 
ous, self-sacrificing  servants  of  God,  who  by 
their  faith  and  zeal  kept  the  torch  of  education 
as  well  as  religion,  burning  brightly  at  a  time 
when  feudal  despotism  was  in  league  with 
ignorance,  and  devoted  to  war  and  conquest. 
Those  feudal  lords  kept  a  certain  class  of 
the  people  in  ignorance  and  degradation, 
whose  only  ambition  was  to  obey  their  royal 
masters  with  a  most  abject  servility.     To 
improve  the  moral  condition  of  such  a  vil- 
lainous class  was  no  small  nor  easy  task. 
They  lived  generally,  outside  the  cities,  in 
close  proximity  to  the  baronial  castle,  fol- 
lowed no  worthy  occupation,  and  united  the 
character  of  soldier,  robber  and  slave. 

The  Church  undertook  the  Herculean  task 
of  emancipating  them  from  such  a  life  of 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  161 

depravity,  and  succeeded  wonderfully  well, 
despite  the  opposition  of  their  powerful 
chiefs.  The  clergy  imparted  to  them  a  true 
knowledge  of  God,  their  own  responsibility 
and  their  obligations  toward  their  neighbor. 
Such  were  the  characteristic  efforts  of  the 
Church  in  all  ages. 

A  few  years  ago  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge, in  England,  commissioned  a  Mr. 
Kay  to  make  a  tour  of  Europe,  in  order  to 
ascertain  the  condition  of  the  poorer  classes 
in  each  country.  He  spent  eight  years  in 
that  capacity ;  and,  as  he  is  a  staunch  Prot- 
estant, and  consequently  no  friend  of  Catho- 
lics, his  evidence  must  have  some  weight 
v  itli  our  so-called  evangelical  friends. 

Others  may  praise  Mr.  Kay  for  his  manly 
independence  in  famishing  correct  statistics 
of  i Ik;  countries  through  which  he  passed; 
for  our  part  we  thank  him  not  a  whit — ho 
could  not  help  himself,  lie  could  not  contra- 
dict public  records.  Bad  he  Baid  less  than 
he  did  on  the  Bnbjecl  «>r  education,  he  would 
have  been  easily  confuted  by  the  govern- 
14* 


162  THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

mental  registers,  besides  being  pnt  down  as 
a  traveling  mountebank,  in  whom  no  con- 
fidence could  be  placed ;  his  own  friends 
even  would  be  obliged  to  discard  him,  so 
that  he  would  have  no  weight  in  matters 
of  public  interest.  His  report  shows  very 
plainly  that  there  is  more  freedom  of  con- 
science in  the  monarchical  countries  of 
Europe,  save  Russia  and  Turkey,  than  in 
our  own  Republic.  This,  of  course,  is  no 
fault  of  our  glorious  constitution,  but  the 
action  of  a  tyrannical  majority. 

To  show  the  relative  condition  of  the  edu- 
cational system  in  those  countries  visited 
by  Mr.  Kay,  we  borrow  the  following  statis- 
tical extracts  from  his  report,  as  we  find 
them  in  Dr.  Spalding's  Review  on  this  sub- 
ject, and  which  read  as  follows : 

In  France  the  number  of  primary  schools 
in  1843  was  fifty-nine  thousand  three  hun- 
dred and  eighty-three,  the  number  of  nor- 
mal colleges  for  the  instruction  of  teachers 
was  ninety-six,  and  the  number  of  teachers 
actually  engaged   in   instruction,   seventy- 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  163 

five  thousand  five  hundred  and  thirty-five  ; 
and  as  the  population  of  France  in  1843 
amounted  to  thirty-four  million  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty  thousand  one  hundred  and 
seventy-eight,  it  follows  that  there  was  in 
that  year 

One  primary  school  in  France  for  every        558  inhabitants. 

One  teacher  for  every 446        do 

One  normal  college  for  every 356,564        do 

In  the  same  year  there  was  in  Prussia 

One  primary  school  for  every 653         do 

One  teacher  for  every 662         do 

One  normal  college  for  every 377,300        do 

In  the  kingdom  of  Bavaria  (Catholic), 
in  the  year  1846,  there  was 

One  teacher  for  every 508        do 

One  primary  school  for  every 603        do 

One  normal  school  for  every 550,000         do 

In  the  kingdom  of  Saxony  (Protestant, 
with  ;i  Catholic  king),  there  was  in 
tin.-  year  1843 

i  primary  school  for  every 900        do 

icher  for  every ""ws        do 

■  normal  college  for  every 21  1,975         do 

the  duchy  of  Baden  (Catholic,  with 
ml  government),  in  tin- year 
l-il  there  » 

One  primary  school  for  every 700        do 

mnal  college  for  every ."on i       do 


164  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

It  will  be  seen  that,  while  Saxony  has 
more  normal  schools,  in  proportion,  than 
either  Prussia,  Bavaria,  or  even  France, 
she  is  far  behind  France  in  the  relative 
number  of  primary  schools  and  teachers, 
and  behind  Prussia,  Bavaria,  and  Baden, 
in  the  proportion  of  primary  schools  to  the 
population.  It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind, 
that  in  Saxony,  the  government  is  Catho- 
lic, with  a  large  majority  of  Protestants  in 
the  population,  while  the  government  of 
Prussia  is  Protestant,  with  about  two-fifths 
of  the  population,  Catholics ;  that  of  Baden, 
Protestant,  with  a  very  large  Catholic 
majority ;  while  both  the  government  and 
an  overwhelming  majority  of  the  people 
of  Bavaria  are  Catholic." 

In  regard  to  Austria,  we  have  the  follow- 
ing statistics:  "In  1842  the  population  of 
the  Austrian  empire,  including  Lombardy, 
but  excluding  Hungary,  was  twenty-five 
million  three  hundred  and  four  thousand 
one  hundred  and  fifty -two.  For  this  popu- 
lation, twenty  thousand  two  hundred  and 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  165 

ninety-three  primary  day-schools  had  been 
founded;  that  is,  one  primary  day-school 
for  every  one  thousand  two  hundred  and 
forty-seven  inhabitants,  besides  eleven 
thousand  one  hundred  and  forty  repeti- 
tion, or  evening-class  schools.  For  these 
twenty  thousand  two  hundred  and  ninety- 
three  primary  schools,  forty-one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  nine  teachers  had  been 
appointed  and  salaried,  each  of  these  teach- 
ers having  obtained  a  certificate  of  com- 
petence before  being  allowed  to  officiate  as 
an  instructor  of  youth.  There  was,  there- 
fore, in  1842,  about  one  teacher  for  every 
six  hundred  inhabitants  in  the  whole  empire 
of  Austria,  excluding  Hungary,  and  rather 
more  than  two  teachers,  on  the  average, 
to  '-very  primary  school." 

"Franco  lias  fifty-nine  thousand  three 
hundred  and  eighty-three  elementary 
schools;  England  and  Wales  only  four 
thousand*  France  expends  annually  two 
million  pounds  sterling;  England  only 
one    hundred    and    twenty  eight    thousand 


106  THE   QUESTION-   SOLVED. 

pounds.  In  England  and  Wales  nearly 
eight  million  persons  cannot  read  and 
write,  and  of  four  hundred  and  sixty-seven 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety-four 
marriages  of  all  classes  in  three  years, 
three  hundred  and  three  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  thirty-six  of  the  persons 
married  could  not  write  their  own  names. 
More  than  one-half  of  the  children  in  Eng- 
land are  not  attending  any  school,  and  the 
teachers  in  many  of  the  village  schools 
cannot  read  and  write  correctly,  and  know 
little  of  the  Bible,  although  they  profess 
to  explain  it  to  their  pupils.  To  come  up 
to  the  lowest  standard  of  popular  educa- 
tion in  Continental  Europe,  England  and 
Wales  should  have  twenty-three  thou- 
sand five  hundred  and  thirty-one  schools, 
twenty-six  thousand  five  hundred  teach- 
ers, and  forty-one  normal  schools  ;  whereas 
of  normal  schools  she  has  only  twelve  to 
ninety-two  in  France,  and  only  a  little 
more  than  one-sixth  of  her  quota  of  primary 
schools !     By  far  the  greatest  part  of  the 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  167 

school  buildings  of  England  have  only  one 
room,  in  which  all  the  classes  are  instructed 
together,  in  the  midst  of  noise  and  foul 
air." 

"In  Protestant  Holland  there  are  only 
two  normal  schools  to  two  million  six  hun- 
dred thousand  inhabitants." 

•  Rome,  with  a  population  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  thousand  six  hundred  and 
seventy-eight  souls,  has  three  hundred  and 
seventy-two  public  primary  schools,  with 
four  hundred  and  eighty-two  teachers,  and 
fourteen  thousand  children  attending  them  ; 
Berlin,  with  double  the  population,  has  only 

hundred  and  sixty-four  schools.  Rome 
has  also  her  university,  with  an  average 
attendance  of  six  hundred  and  sixty  stu- 
dents; and  the  Papal  States,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  two  and  a  half  millions,  contain 

•  n  universities,  while  Prussia,  with  a 
population  of  fourteen  million,  has  but 
seven." 

"In  Spain,  in  1850,  there  were  ten  univer- 
sities,   forty  nine  institute   under  direction 


1G8  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

of  the  government,  and  sixteen  thousand 
primary  and  other  schools.  In  public 
schools  alone  (exclusive  of  universities  and 
institutes),  the  number  of  pupils  was  in  the 
proportion  of  one  to  seventeen  of  the  whole 
population." 

By  this  we  see  that  Catholic  France  is  far 
ahead  of  Prussia  or  any  other  Protestant 
nation  of  Europe,  while  England  is  at  the 
foot  of  the  scale,  not  only  of  all  Catholic 
but  Protestant  countries. 

In  France,  Austria,  and  other  Catholic 
countries,  provision  is  made  for  Protestant 
children,  so  that  the  religious  scruples  of 
their  parents  are  amply  satisfied.  No  law 
compels  them  to  bow  to  the  vast  majority, 
in  this  respect.  Mr.  Kay  says,  "The  most 
interesting  and  satisfactory  feature  of  the 
Austrian  system  is  the  great  liberality  with 
which  the  government,  although  so  staunch 
an  adherent  and  supporter  of  the  Romanist 
priesthood,  has  treated  the  religious  parties 
who  differ  from  itself  in  their  religious 
dogmas.     It  has  been  entirely  owing  to  this 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  169 

liberality  that  neither  the  great  number  of 
sects  in  Austria,  nor  the  great  difference  of 
their  religious  tenets,  have  hindered  the 
work  of  the  education  of  the  poor  through- 
out the  empire."  He  goes  on  to  show  the 
efficiency  of  the  schools,  and  how  the  diffi- 
culties arising  from  religion  are  met;  and 
ends  up  by  saying,  that  "Whenever  the 
minority  of  any  parish,  whether  Romanists, 
Protestants,  or  Jews,  desire  to  establish  a 
separate  school  for  their  children,  and  to 
support  a  teacher  of  their  own  denomina- 
tion, they  are  at  liberty  to  separate  from  the 
majority,  to  provide  alone  for  the  education 
of  their  children ;  but,  by  one  means  or 
another,  each  parish  is  obliged  to  provide 
tor  tli*'  education  of  all  its  children,  and 
inch  householder  to  contribute  his  share  of 
the  funds  necessary  for  this  purpose;  and, 
trhether  separate  or  mixed  schools  are 
established,  all  are  made  subject  to  public 
Inspection,  so  that  tin*  public  may  know  t  lie 
real  character  of  each  establishment  ;  that 
no  demoralizing  school,  <>r  inefficient  or  im 
15 


170  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

moral  teacher,  may  be  allowed  to  exercise  a 
baneful  influence  upon  the  youth  of  the 
empire ;  and  that  the  instruction  in  useful 
and  civilizing  knowledge  may  not  be  sacri- 
ficed in  any  degree  to  the  dogmatical  teach- 
ing of  the  different  sects." 

If  the  object  of  Catholicism  is  covertly  to 
gain  control  of  education  in  order  to  use  it 
against  Protectants,  why,  in  the  name  of 
common  sense,  do  they  not  carry  out  the 
scheme  wh^re  they  have  the  power  to  do  so. 
I  have  alluded  to  Austria  particularly,  as 
she  has  always  been  the  butt  and  reproach 
of  our  over-bilious  parsons  and  swaddling 
ranters  of  every  description. 

We  might  go  on  quoting  from  Mr.  Kay' s 
report,  which  is  quite  a  voluminous  affair, 
but  enough  has  been  given  to  show  that 
Catholics  are  not  such  an  ignorant,  godless, 
vicious  and  forsaken  set,  as  our  virtuous 
and  immaculate  Protestant  friends  would 
have  us  believe. 

If  "universal  ignorance"  is  the  distinct- 
ive feature  of  Catholicism,  how  came  it  to 


TIIE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  171 

pass,  that,  in  1264,  fifteen  thousand  scholars 
altered  Oxford  alone,  and  from  1300  to 
1340,  the  number  of  students  annually  ex- 
ceeded thirty  thousand.  One  thousand 
poor  scholars  were  educated  yearly  in  that 
noble  institution,  free  of  expense.  Can  the 
same  be  said  of  it  in  onr  day  ? 

In  1263,  the  University  of  Bologna  re- 
ceived ten  thousand  law  students,  and 
Robertson,  in  his  History  of  Charles  V, 
says,  that  ten  thousand  graduates  voted 
on  certain  questions  in  the  University  of 
Paris. 

Has  Dr.  Clark  never  heard  of  such  bril- 
limit  minds  as  Euscbius,  St.  Jerome,  St. 
Hilary,  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  St.  Augus- 
ti!i<\  Origen,  Ambrose,  Athanasius,  Cassio- 
dorns,  the  emperor  Constantino,  Charle- 
magne, Leo  X,  Polycarp,  Justinian,  St. 
Clement,  and  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  others,  eqnally  great  and  gifted?  The 
names  of  distinguished  scholars  senl  forth 
by  the  Critholir  Church  would  fill  volumes. 
I  defy  Dr.  Clark  to  prove  that  one  of  them 


172  TIIE  QUESTION"  SOLVED. 

discouraged  the  diffusion  of  useful  knowl- 
edge, at  any  time  or  place;  on  the  con- 
trary, they  were  always  the  patrons  of 
literature,  and  the  guardians  of  education. 

If  "universal  ignorance"  is  the  pre- 
dominant passion  of  Catholics,  what  in 
the  world  have  they  accumulated  so  many 
libraries  for?  What  a  foolish  people,  to 
be  sure,  to  wear  themselves  out  in  writing 
and  collecting  such  a  vast  and  varied  num- 
ber of  books!  It  was  not  at  all  "smart" 
in  them  to  build  up  such  libraries  as  those 
of  Monte  Cassino,  Csesarea,  Jerusalem, 
Rome,  Alexandria,  Constantinople,  Ham- 
burg, Bamberg,  Cologne,  Weremouth, 
York,  Lincoln,  Armagh,  Spanheim,  Ros- 
sano,  Piedmont,  Peterborough,  Paris,  Pa- 
dua, Naples,  Salamanca,  and  Valladolid. 

Poor  old  Ireland,  may  her  name  be  for- 
ever sacred  for  her  efforts  in  the  cause  of 
education  !  For  three  hundred  years,  from 
the  fifth  to  the  eighth  century,  she  led  the 
van  of  intellectual  progress  throughout 
Europe.     If  Dr.  Clark  will  look  into  the 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  173 

Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  he  will  see 
what  Catholic  Ireland  accomplished  for 
literature  and  civilization,  when  his  Eng- 
lish progenitors  were  yet  a  common  horde 
of  barbarians.  She  not  only  founded  the 
schools  of  Bobbio  in  Italy,  Ratisbon,  Co- 
logne, and  Erfurth,  but  her  professors  were 
to  be  found  in  every  institution  of  note 
throughout  the  Continent.  She  founded, 
too,  the  famous  school  of  Lindisfarne,  and 
many  others  throughout  England. 

Does   this   look   like    "universal   ignor- 
ance," Doctor? 

How  was  it  subsequent  to  the  boasted 
Reformation  i  The  enlightened  Protestants 
tore  down  and  leveled  to  the  ground  all 
the  monastic  schools  ;  converted  the  colleges 
to  private  and  public  uses,  and  allowed 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  to  fall  into  decay. 
Many  of  the  old  libraries  were  entirely 
destroyed,  and  the  children  of  the  lew, 
only,  were  permitted  the  advantages  of 
education,  while  the  poor  were  neglected 
and  despised.  It  is  true,  that  very  many 
15* 


174  THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

discoveries  and  improvements  are  of  mod- 
ern date,  but  we  do  not  thank  the  Prot- 
estant religion  for  them ;  some  of  them 
were  the  resnlt  of  chance,  while  others  were 
brought  into  notice  by  men  having  no 
especial  regard  for  revealed  religion.  But 
this  we  will  say,  that  those  educated  pre- 
vious to  the  Reformation  knew  perfectly 
well  the  rights  and  duties  of  mankind,  and 
as  to  a  thorough  religious  education,  they 
have  not  yet  been  excelled. 

Dr.  Clark  asserts  that  "Catholics  hate  the 
Bible,"  but  does  he  not  know,  that  it  was 
the  Catholic  saints,  by  the  authority  of  the 
Church,  that  collected  and  compiled  the 
canon  of  the  Scripture,  which  has  been 
handed  down  to  us  through  one  generation 
after  another  %  If  Catholics  feared  the  spread 
of  knowledge  and  hated  the  Bible  so  much, 
it  is  strange  that  St.  Boniface  should  entreat 
of  a  certain  abbess,  that  she  would  copy  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Peter,  in  letters  of  gold. 

If  Protestants  were  honest  in  their  love 
for  the  Bible,  instead  of  villifying  Catholics 


THE    QUESTION   SOLVED.  175 

about  hating  it,  they  would  offer  a  vote  of 
thanks  every  Sunday  morning  in  their 
assemblies,  to  the  Catholic  Church  for  her 
jealous  care  and  watchfulness,  in  protect- 
ing the  sacred  volume.  If  Catholics  were 
averse  to  the  Bible,  they  might  have  de- 
stroyed it  ages  before  the  Lutheran  mon- 
strosity was  spawned ;  but,  instead  of  so 
doing,  Bibles  were  printed  in  Latin,  Ger- 
man, Italian,  French,  English,  Spanish  and 
Dutch,  long  before  Luther  broke  his  sacred 
vows.  There  were  forty  editions  printed  in 
Italy  alone,  and  recommended  by  the 
Pope  —  three  distinct  translations  were  pub- 
lished at  Wittemberg,  the  latest  in  1490,  only 
seven  years  after  the  birth  of  Luther  —  and 
seventy  «'dit ions  in  other  languages,  before 
Luth<r  issued  his  version. 

To  near  Protestants  ''blow,"  as  a  Yankee 
would  say,  is  sometimes  amnsing.  They 
remind  you  of  old  salts,  who  are  notorious 
for  their  fish  stories  they  become  so  accus- 
tomed to  retailing  them  over  and  over  that 
they  finally  believe  them  themselves.     Prot- 


176  THE  QUESTION  SOLVED. 

estants,  in  like  manner,  keep  on  telling  us 
what  they  have  done  for  the  world  —  they 
started  the  fox  and  came  in  at  the  killing. 
They  have  invented  everything,  from  a  jack- 
knife  to  a  flying  ship — they  are  the  head 
and  pluck  of  every  great  achievement  in 
literature,  art  and  science  —  in  fact,  they 
ride  npon  the  wind,    and    sail  npon    the 
storm  ;  nothing  is  good  but  what  they  do  or 
say,  and  nothing  right  but  what  they  coun- 
tenance.    If  they  had  lived  in  the  days  of 
Pontius  Pilate  they  would  have  eclipsed  the 
Pharisees,  by  their  vain  boasting  and  self- 
glory.      Their  lights  are  on  the  mountain 
tops,  while  the  dim  taper  of  Catholics  is 
hid  under  a  bushel,  producing  nothing  but 
smoke.     Our  American  Protestants  are  as 
vindictive  as  their  English  co-religionists,  if 
not  more  so.     They  are  very  magnanimous 
in  their  assertions  and  accusations  against 
the  spirit  of  the  Church,  but  she  can  stand 
it  all,  for  as  it  is  in  the  department  of  pub- 
lic instruction,  so  is  it  in  all  other  respects, 
as  far  as  Catholic  principles  are  concerned. 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  177 

Look  them  up  honestly,  and  you  will  find 
them,  as  did  Mr.  Kay  the  educational  sys- 
tem. He  started  from  England,  which  he 
had  fancied  the  most  progressive,  moral  and 
civilized  nation  on  earth,  and  expected 
nothing  in  his  perambulations  on  the  Conti- 
nent but  ignorance,  superstition  and  crime  ; 
but,  to  the  great  surprise  of  the  Cambridge 
commission  that  sent  him  forth,  he  returned, 
after  long  absence,  to  tell  them  that  his 
native  country  was,  in  the  aggregate,  the 
most  depraved  and  illiterate  nation  he  had 
seen. 


CHAP.  X. 

False  accusations  against  the  church  —  sincerity  and  in- 
tellect SEEK  ROME.  HYPOCRISY  AND  IGNORANCE  SEEK  GENEVA 
—  COMPARISON  BETWEEN  CATHOLICS  AND  PROTESTANTS  ON 
THEIR  DEATH-BEDS  — BRILLIANT  EULOGIES  PASSED  ON  THE 
CHURCH  BY  DISTINGUISHED  PROTESTANTS  —  THE  CHANGING  OP 
PROTESTANTS  FROM  ONE  COMMUNION  TO  ANOTHER  —  PROTEST- 
ANT  PRIDE. 

IF  the  Church  of  Rome  is  such  a  moun- 
tain of  ignorance  as  our  intelligent  Doc- 
tor makes  her  out  to  be,  how  comes  it  that 
so  many  learned  men  and  women  forsake 
Protestantism  to  enter  the  ranks  of  Roman 
Catholics  %  We  could  enumerate  thousands 
of  highly  distinguished  converts  from  Prot- 
estantism, yearly.  No  base  or  selfish  motive 
prompts  them  to  take  such  a  step,  because, 
in  a  worldly  point  of  view,  they  have  every 
thing  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain.  Not  so 
the  miserable  few  who  forsake  Catholicism 
for  some  uncertain  creed.  Take,  for  exam- 
ple, such  apostates  as  Achilli,  who  was 
expelled  for  his  libertinism  ;  Hogan  and 
Gavazi,  suspended  priests,  whose  crimes 
had  been  proven  against  them ;  degraded 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  179 

in  body  and  soul,  and  covered  with  the 
leprosy  of  their  own  abominations,  they  go 
away  prodigals  from  their  father' s  house,  to 
be  received  with  open  arms  by  Protestants. 
Where  will  you  find  such  men  as  New 
man,  Manning,  Faber,  Wilberforce,  Lord 
Spencer,  the  Duke  of  Saxe-Gotha,  Prince 
Henry  Edward  of  Schoenberg,  Count  Ingen- 
heim,  brother  to  the  King  of  Prussia,  Fred- 
eric, Duke  of  Meclenburg,  Madame  Swetch- 
ine  of  Russia,  a  most  brilliant  writer  and 
thinker,  the  brother  of  the  King  of  Wurtem- 
l)ii rg,  or  the  famous  Count  Stolberg  and  his 
whole  family.  Werner,  who  occupied  many 
of  the  highest  positions  in  the  city  of  Berlin, 
on  becoming  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the 
Catholic  faith,  cast  away  all  his  honors  and 
joined  the  order  of  the  poor  Redemptorists. 
A  great  many  others,  not  less  distinguished 
in  literature  and  science,  belonging  to  Prussia 
(whose common  school  system,  by  the  way, 
is  far  in  advance  of  our  own  country),  re- 
nounced  Protestantism  and   became  Catho- 


180  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

lies,  such  as  Schlegel,  the  Baron  Eckstein, 
the  famous  Adam  Muller,  etc.,  etc. 

Charles  Louis  de  Haller,  one  of  the  most 
eminent  Protestants  of  Switzerland,  became 
a  Catholic,  for  which  he  lost  his  social  posi- 
tion, his  titles  and  emoluments,  and  was 
driven  into  exile  by  his  former  friends,  who, 
like  Dr.  Clark  &  Co.,  boast  of  their  tolera- 
tion and  freedom  of  thought  and  action. 
But  the  glorious  example  of  Haller  was 
soon  followed  by  others,  among  whom  we 
may  mention  Esslinger,  of  Zurich,  Pierre  de 
Joux,  of  Geneva,  as  also  Frederic  Hurter, 
the  learned  President  of  the  Consistory  of 
Schaffhouse,  Overbeck,  the  great  painter, 
Laval,  pastor  of  Conde-sur-Noiveau,  Paul 
Latour,  President  of  the  Consistory  of  Maz- 
d'Asil,  the  famous  Bermaz,  of  Lyons,  and 
Listz,  the  great  pianist  and  composer. 

In  the  United  States  we  have  Dr.  Ives, 
once  Protestant  Bishop  of  North  Carolina, 
who  made  a  journey  to  Rome,  and  thowing 
himself  at  the  feet  of  the  Pope,  handed  him 
the  ring  and  seal  which  he  wore  as  the  in- 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  181 

signia  of  his  office,  saying,  "Holy  Father, 
here  are  the  marks  of  my  rebellion."  Who 
has  not  heard  of  the  erudite,  uncompromis- 
ing Dr.  Brownson,  one  of  the  greatest  logi- 
cians that  America  has  ever  seen,  and  the 
terror  of  Protestant  controversialists ;  for  no 
man  in  the  United  States  could  be  found  so 
fool-hardy  as  to  measure  swords  with  him 
in  the  field  of  metaphysics  or  theology. 

We  can,  also,  point  to  Father  Hecker,  one 
of  the  most  learned  men  in  the  country,  and 
Superior  of  the  Order  of  Paulists,  all  of 
whom  were  distinguished  ministers  of  vari- 
ous sects,  and  belonging  to  some  of  the  first 
families  of  the  country;  Dr.  Rogers,  of 
Louisville  ;  Dr.  Anderson,  the  distinguished 
ivist  and  writer;  Bishop  Bayley ;  Rev. 
Mi.  Doane;  Rev.  Mr.  Preston,  of  St.  Ann's, 
New  Voik  :  Father  Wadhams,  V.  G.,  and 
Father  Walworth,  of  our  own  city. 

We  have  prominent  converts  from  all  the 
liberal  professions,  ami  not  a  day  passes 
without  fresh  recruits  from  Protestant 
ranks. 


L6 


182  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

Now,  who  do  we  lose  ?  Unfrocked  monks, 
suspended  priests,  and  a  few  obstinate 
noodles,  who,  once  in  a  great  while,  go  to 
the  next  Protestant  meeting  house  through 
spite ;  but  who,  on  their  death  bed,  con- 
science-smitten, send  for  a  priest  and  re- 
nounce their  apostacy.  Protestants,  again, 
take  a  mean  advantage  of  some  poor  people 
in  distress,  and  bribe  them  to  forsake  their 
religion,  which  they  may  do  for  a  time,  but, 
as  a  rule,  they  return  again. 

Who  ever  heard  of  a  Catholic  who,  on 
his  death  bed,  desired  to  become  a  Protest- 
ant? I  could  swear  on  the  Holy  Gospels 
there  never  was  one.  On  the  contrary, 
thousands  of  Protestants,  when  they  come 
to  die,  renounce  the  errors  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, beg  to  be  admitted  to  the  True  Church, 
and  depart  this  life  in  peace,  praising  God 
for  their  conversion. 

Who  ever  heard  of  an  intelligent  Catholic 
becoming  a  Protestant,  unless  for  some  self- 
ish object?  I  challenge  Dr.  Clark  to  point 
out  one  !     How  many  converts  has  he  made 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  183 

since  his  ordination,  with  all  his  ranting? 
Answer,  ye  Congregationalists  of  Brooklyn, 
and  ye  Dutch  Reformed  of  Albany  !  There 
might  be  one  or  two  stray  sheep,  without 
brains  or  influence,  who  have  wandered 
from  the  fold  for  the  sake  of  a  husband  or 
a  wife,  or  to  improve  their  worldly  condi- 
tion, and  sold  their  birthright  for  a  mess  of 
pottage  ;  but,  if  they  were  questioned  as  to 
why  they  changed  their  religion,  could  not 
give  the  first  sensible  or  scriptural  answer. 
On  the  contrary,  I  could  show  him  hun- 
dreds in  this  city  alone,  who  have  re- 
nounced Protestantism,  and  who  could 
hedge  the  learned  Doctor  round  about  with 
arguments  and  proofs  as  solid  as  the  rocks 
of  Gibraltar. 

1 1'  you  Protestants  possess  all  the  learn- 
ing, all  the  sincerity,  and  all  the  holiness, 
of  which  you  boast,  and  we  only  the  peel- 
ings, scraps  and  refuse  of  what  is  good, 
intelligent  and  true,  how  come  these  things 
to  pass? 

Ifgr.  Segur  relates  the  story  of  a  Protest- 


184  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

ant  minister  and  French  priest,  who  were 
traveling  together  in  a  stage  coach,  when 
the  following  conversation  took  place.  The 
minister  introduced  the  subject  of  conver- 
sions, and  found  great  fault  with  the  priest, 
for  the  large  number  of  recruits  the  Church 
obtained  out  of  the  ranks  of  Protestantism  ; 
the  priest  answered  with  a  smile,  "  but  you 
have  a  good  many  on  your  side."  "Ah," 
replied  the  minister  ;  "yes,  but  you  give  us 
your  garbage,  while  you  take  our  cream." 
A  writer  quoted  by  Mr.  Foisset,  in  his 
work  on  Catholicity  and  Protestantism, 
said,  "Had  I  the  misfortune  of  not  being  a 
Catholic,  two  things  would  disturb  me,  I 
must  confess.  First,  the  number  and  supe- 
rior mind  of  those  who  have  believed  in  the 
Roman  Church,  after  examination,  ever 
since  the  times  of  Luther  and  Calvin  ;  and 
secondly,  the  number  and  superior  mind  of 
those  who,  after  examination,  have  aban- 
doned Luther  and  Calvin,  and  gone  over  to 
Rome.     I  would,  hence,  come  to  the  conclu- 


THE    QUESTION   SOLVED.  185 

sion  that  there  is  room  for  examination,  and 
I  would  examine." 

The  high  and  flattering  encomiums  passed 
on  the  usefulness,  strength  and  perpetuity 
of  our  holy  Church,  by  men  of  science  and 
philosophy  outside  her  communion,  would 
of  themselves  fill  volumes.  Let  those  who 
are  contiually  predicting  the  overthrow  of 
the  Church  of  Rome,  hearken  to  the  declara- 
tion of  Lord  Macaulay  concerning  her  : 
"  The  proudest  royal  houses  are  but  of  yes- 
terday, compared  with  the  line  of  the 
Supreme  Pontiffs.  The  Republic  of  Venice 
came  next  in  antiquity.  But  the  Republic 
of  Venice  was  modern,  when  compared  with 
the  Papacy  ;  and  the  Republic  of  Venice 
is  gone,  and  the  Papacy  remains.  The 
Papacy  remains,  not  in  decay  —  not  a  mere 
antique,  but  full  of  life  and  youthful  vigor. 
The  Catholic  Church  is  still  sending  forth, 
bo  ill'-  furtln'st  ends  of  the,  world,  mission- 
aries as  zealous  as  those  who  Landed  in  ELenl 
with  Augustine;  and  still  confronting  kings 
with  the  same  spirit  with  which  she  con- 


186  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

fronted  Attila.  The  number  of  her  children 
is  greater  than  in  any  former  age.  .  .  .  Nor 
do  we  see  any  sign  which  indicates  that  the 
term  of  her  long  dominion  is  approaching. 
She  saw  the  commencement  of  all  govern- 
ments, and  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ments that  now  exist  in  the  world  ;  and  we 
feel  no  assurance  that  she  is  not  destined  to 
see  the  end  of  them  all.  She  was  great  and 
respected  before  the  Saxon  set  foot  on  Britain ; 
before  the  French  had  crossed  the  Rhine ; 
when  Grecian  eloquence  still  flourished  at 
Antioch  ;  when  idols  were  still  worshipped 
in  the  temple  of  Mecca.  And  she  may  still 
exist,  in  undiminished  vigor,  when  some 
traveler  from  New  Zealand  shall,  in  the 
midst  of  a  vast  solitude,  take  his  stand  on 
a  broken  arch  of  London  bridge,  to  sketch 
the  ruins  of  St.  Paul.  .  .  .  When  we  reflect 
on  the  tremendous  assaults  which  she  has 
survived,  we  find  it  difficult  to  conceive  in 
what  way  she  is  to  perish." 

The  famous  scholar  Marheinehe,  admits 
the  Church  to  be  miraculously  organized. 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  187 

He  says,  "We,  Protestants  as  we  are,  when 
we  take  in  at  one  view  this  wondrous  edi- 
fice, from  its  base  to  its  summit,  must 
acknowledge  that  we  have  never  beheld  a 
system  which,  the  foundation  once  laid,  is 
raised  upon  such  certain  and  secure  prin- 
ciples;  whose  structure  displays,  in  its 
minutest  details,  so  much  art,  penetration 
and  consistency ;  and  whose  plan  is  so 
proof  against  the  severest  criticisms  of  the 
most  profound  science." 

Another  German  philosopher,  Gfroner, 
says,  "The  Catholic  Faith,  if  we  concede  its 
first  axiom,  which  neither  the  Lutherans, 
nor  the  Reformed,  nor  even  the  followers  of 
Soiinus  denied,  is  as  consistent  and  as  con- 
secutive as  the  books  of  Euclid.  The  entire 
of  tli*~  Romish  religion  is  founded  upon 
the  fact  of  a  supernatural  revelation,  de- 
signed for  the  whole  human  race;  which,  as 
it  embraces  all  generations,  future  as  well 
B  -  present,  can  never  be  interrupted.'9 

l'rof.  Draper,  of  the  University  of  New 
York,  who  has  no  superior  in  the  ranks  of 


188  THE  QUESTION  SOLVED. 

men  of  science  and  philosophy  in  America, 
speaks  of  the  influence  of  the  Christian 
Church  on  European  civilization,  as  fol- 
lows: "In  the  history  of  the  European, 
from  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Constantine 
to  the  eighteenth  century,  the  ecclesiastical 
element  so  greatly  preponderates  as  to 
constitute  its  almost  essential  feature ;  and, 
after  all,  it  is  impossible  to  do  justice  to 
the  effects  which  ensued  on  the  establish- 
ment of  Christianity,  and  its  adoption  by 
the  white  man  as  his  religion.  The  civil 
law  exerted  an  exterior  power  in  human 
relations;  this  produced  an  interior  and 
moral  change.  The  idea  of  an  ultimate 
accountability  for  personal  deeds,  of  which 
the  old  Europeans  had  an  indistinct  per- 
ception, became  intense  and  precise;  the 
sentiment  of  universal  charity  was  exem- 
plified, not  only  in  individual  acts,  the 
remembrance  of  which  soon  passed  away, 
but  in  the  more  permanent  institution  of 
establishments  for  the  relief  of  affliction, 
the  spread  of  knowledge,  the  propagation 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  189 

of  truth.  Of  the  great  ecclesiastics,  many 
had  risen  from  the  humblest  ranks  of 
society,  and  these  great  men,  true  to  their 
democratic  instincts,  were  often  found  to 
be  the  inflexible  supporters  of  right  against 
might.  Eventually  coming  to  be  the  de- 
positaries of  the  knowledge  that  then  ex- 
isted, they  opposed  intellect  to  brute  force, 
in  many  iD stances  successfully,  and,  by 
the  example  of  the  organization  of  the 
Church,  which  was  essentially  republican, 
they  showed  how  representative  systems 
may  be  introduced  into  the  State.  Nor 
was  it  over  communities  and  nations  that 
the  Church  displayed  her  chief  power. 
Never  in  the  world  before  was  there  such 
a  system.  From  her  central  seat  at  Rome, 
hex  all-seeing  eye,  like  that  of  Providence 
itself,  could  equally  take  in  a  hemisphere 
at  a  glance,  or  examine  the  private  life  of 
:inv  individual  Her  boundless  influence 
enveloped  kings  in  their  palaces,  or  re- 
lieved the  beggar  at  the  monastery  gate. 
In  all   Europe  there  was   not  a  man   too 


190  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

obscure,  too  insignificant,  or  too  desolate 
for  her.  Surrounded  by  her  solemnities, 
every  one  received  his  name  at  her  altar; 
her  bells  chimed  at  his  marriage,  her  knell 
tolled  at  his  funeral.  She  extorted  from 
him  the  secrets  of  his  life  at  her  confes- 
sionals, and  punished  his  faults  by  her 
penances.  In  his  hour  of  sickness  and 
trouble  her  servants  sought  him  out,  teach- 
ing him  by  her  exquisite  litanies  and 
prayers  to  place  his  reliance  on  God,  or 
strengthening  him  for  the  trials  of  life,  by 
the  example  of  the  holy  and  just.  Her 
prayers  had  an  efficacy  to  give  repose  to 
the  soul  of  his  dead.  When  even  to  his 
friends  his  lifeless  body  had  become  an 
offense,  in  the  name  of  God,  she  received 
it  into  her  consecrated  ground,  and  under 
her  shadow  he  rested  till  the  great  reckon- 
ing day.  From  little  better  than  a  slave, 
she  raised  his  wife  to  be  his  equal,  and,  for- 
bidding him  to  have  more  than  one,  met 
her  recompense  for  those  noble  deeds  in  a 
firm   friend  at  every  fireside.     Discounte- 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  191 

nancing  all  impure  love,  she  put  round 
that  fireside  the  children  of  one  mother, 
and  made  that  mother  little  less  than 
sacred  in  their  eyes.  In  ages  of  lawless- 
ness and  rapine,  among  people  but  a  step 
above  savages,  she  vindicated  the  inviola- 
bility of  her  precincts  against  the  hand  of 
power,  and  made  her  temple  a  refuge  and 
sanctuary  for  the  despairing  and  oppressed. 
Truly  she  was  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock 
in  many  a  weary  land ! " 

Great  and  expansive  intellects  have  always 
been  more  disposed  to  deal  fairly  with  the 
policy  of  the  Church  than  those  of  smaller 
capacity.  Take  a  poor,  miserable  sectarian 
devotee,  with  a  mind  as  muddy  as  the 
Mississippi  alter  a  freshet,  a  cold,  sluggish 
heart,  aad  a  soul  no  bigger  than  a  mus- 
(|iiito's  wing,  and  h<-  is  by  far  a  greater 
bigot  than  your  man  of  large  brain  and 
noble  instincts. 

In  tin-  davs  iif  in v  early  boyhood,  family 

matters  brought  me  in  contact  with  Prot- 

nts,  and  being  of  an  inquiring  turn  of 


192  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

mind,  I  came  very  near  being  led  astray 
by  the  cunning  sophistries  of  many  of  my 
friends.  I  had  the  presumption  of  going 
so  far  as  to  doubt  many  things  concerning 
Catholic  faith  and  Catholic  principles,  and 
if  I  am  a  judge  of  my  own  feelings,  there 
never  was  a  person  of  my  age  (for  I  was 
yet  in  my  pupilage),  that  made  a  more 
honest  investigation  into  the  Protestant 
claim  than  I  did.  I  sincerely  regret  having 
wasted  so  much  valuable  time  in  hunting 
up  what,  in  my  inmost  soul,  I  designate  as 
the  biggest  religious  swindle  that  has  been 
known  in  the  history  of  man;  for,  as  far  as 
I  could  judge,  I  discovered  more  downright 
hypocrisy  and  covering  up  of  sin,  among 
Protestants,  than  among  those  who  pro- 
fessed no  religion  at  all.  I  could  point  my 
finger  to  professors  of  religion,  of  high 
standing,  with  a  sleek,  pious  exterior,  who 
make  long  prayers,  hate  Catholics,  and 
talk  much  about  virtue  and  holiness,  who 
are  regular  Shylocks,  unscrupulous,  vin- 
dictive, and  uncharitable. 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  193 

A  good,  pious,  and  practical  Catholic, 
who  never,  perhaps,  committed  a  mortal 
sin  in  his  life,  who  views  himself  a  sinner 
in  the  sight  of  God,  and  would  be  scandal- 
ized if  his  virtues  were  paraded  all  over 
town,  is  decried  by  your  evangelical  per- 
f'-'tionists  who  are  continually  recounting 
their  own  good  deeds ;  but  call  one  of  them 
a  poor,  miserable  sinner,  and  he  will  take 
it  as  a  very  great  insult. 

In  this  connection  I  often  think  of  a 
Btory  told  me  by  a  person  well  acquainted 
with  the  facts.  It  happened  that  a  maiden 
lady,  on  the  shady  side  of  forty,  a  seam- 
Btresfl  by  occupation,  and  a  member  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  resided  in  a  quiet  west- 
ern Tillage.  A1  the  usual  evening  gather- 
in--,  sewing  and  quilting  bees,  "Aunt 
Betsj  "  appeared  as  a  useful  and  clear- 
seeing  person,  who  could  turn  her  hand  to 

8  n y  t  bing.      Her  knowledge  Of  family  affairs 
pretty  extensive,  and  rumor  snid  that 
tie  knew  too  much."    To  church,  sun- 
da}   school,  and  prayer  meetings,  she  was 

r; 


194  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

very  attentive,  but  one  little  besetting  sin 
always  accompanied  her,  and  often  made 
trouble  among  the  neighbors.  Aunt  Betsy 
would  carry  little  privacies  back  and  forth, 
and  generally  with  a  small  addition,  to 
make  them  more  interesting.  Some  of  her 
Methodist  sisters  became  disgusted,  and 
requested  the  dominie  to  give  her  a  "talk- 
ing to."  On  a  certain  evening,  during  con- 
ference meeting,  our  heroine  was  sitting  as 
if  in  great  agony  of  spirit,  and  as  the  minis- 
ter came  around  to  her,  he  asked,  "Well, 
Aunt  Betsy,  what  has  the  Lord  been  doing 
for  you,  since  I  saw  you  last?"     "Wall, 

Brother  B ,  I  am  a  poor  cretur  (a  sob) ; 

I  feel  my  Saviour  afar  off,  and  there  is  no 
good  in  me"  (another  snuffle).  "Well, 
sister,  I  don't  wonder  at  it,  for  every  one 
says  you  are  a  miserable  creature."  This 
was  too  much  for  the  humility  of  Aunt 
Betsy ;  she  jumped  up.  with  an  air  of  per- 
fect scorn  and  contempt,  saying,  "Wall,  I 
am  just  as  good  as  they  are,  or  you  either, 
consarn  your  impudence!"     She  left  the 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  195 

meeting  to  be  seen  at  the  Baptist  Church 
the  following  Sunday. 

The  amount  of  vanity  treasured  up  in 
Protestant  congregations  surpasses  the 
court  of  the  Grand  Turk.  Take,  for  exam- 
ple, the  vagary  of  shifting  or  running  from 
one  Church  to  another  on  the  slightest  pre- 
tense, or  supposed  insult.  They  think  no 
more  of  changing  their  religion  than  they  do 
of  changing  their  clothes.  The  rich  cannot 
brook  the  idea  of  mixing  up  with  a  poor 
congregation  ;  and,  if  a  person  belonging  to 
the  latter  should,  by  hook  or  by  crook,  get 
rich,  they  are  itching  to  go  to  the  Church 
frequented  by  the  "upper  ten."  The 
preacher  dot-snot  suit  one;  the  matter  of 
the  discourse  offends  another  ;  the  minister 
is  too  proud  or  too  humble,  too  grave  or 
too  gay.  Somebody,  of  intluence  in  the 
Congregation,    had    seen    or   heard    of  some 

on'-  else,  ;i  hundred  miles  off,  who  is  just 
the  thing;  :i  meeting  is  called,  the  trustees 
have  a  fight,  the  minister  is  either  insulted 
or  openly  discharged,  and  another  takes 


196  THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

his  place,  to  meet,  perhaps,  with  no  better 
fate. 

The  fact  is,  where  there  is  no  snre  faith, 
there  is  no  stability  of  purpose  in  religion. 
The  father  and  mother  profess  one  set  of 
principles,  the  brother  and  sister  just  the 
reverse ;  while  in  many  cases,  no  two  mem- 
bers of  the  family  believe  alike.  Even  the 
children  of  Protestant  ministers  will  des- 
pise the  tenets  of  their  parents,  and  adopt 
some  other  system  of  ethics.  Can  this  be 
the  work  of  God?  If  so,  the  good  Lord 
would  contradict  Himself,  and  to  say  that, 
would  be  blasphemy. 


CHAP.  XL 

Dr.  clark's  trip  to  Europe  — his  visit  to  the  city  of  the  pon- 
tiffs— LYING  STATISTICS  OF  MORALITY  BY  PROTESTANT  MINIS- 
TERS— AN  <>I,D  DODGE— COMPARISON  BETWEEN  THE  FATHERS 
OF  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  LEADERS  OF  THE  REFORMATION  — 
VAGARIES  OF  PROTESTANTS  —  THE  IMMORALITY  OF  THE  RE- 
FORMERS— THE  VILE  PRACTICES  OF  THE  ANTINOMIANS  —  THE 
FKOFLIGATK      LIVES     OF     PROTESTANT     MONARCH8    AND  RULERS. 

rvR.  CLARK  goes  to  Europe,  whether  for 
*J  the  good  of  his  health,  or  a  respite 
from  the  terribly  exhausting  labor  of  pre- 
paring two  sermons  a  week,  it  is  none  of 
our  business  ;  but  the  Doctor  must  be 
learned  and  interesting  to  feed  his  fashion- 
able flock ;  he  must  present  them  with 
dainty  scraps  of  spiritual  food,  served  up 
with  anti-Popery  sauce,  and  seasoned  with 
the  peppei  of  infidelity  and  the  salt  of  mod- 
ern progress  and  Protestant civilization.  But 
a  journey  to  the  Old  World  is  not  a  journey 
at  all  without  ;i  visit  to  the  Eternal  City; 
and  Dr.  Clark,  being  a  lover  of  ancienl 
Roman  civilization,  must  make  :i  pilgrim- 
age thither.     Now,  :t   h.    i>.  of  the  hutch 

Reformed   stamp  is  a  very  small   potato   in 
17* 


198  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

Rome,  and  just  as  much  out  of  place,  as 
"  Mickey  de  Boots"  would  be  in  the 
society  of  Shakspeare  and  his  friends. 
Having,  no  feeling  in  common  with  the 
spiritual  and  learned  circles  of  that  classi- 
cal city,  he  lounges  round  the  haunts  of 
vice,  and  visits  the  most  abandoned  places 
of  foreign  resort,  kept  by  Protestants  and 
Infidels ;  or  wanders  about  the  site  of  the 
ancient  city,  weeping  over  the  rained  tem- 
ples of  pagan  civilization,  wishing,  no  doubt, 
that  he  had  been  there  in  the  golden  age. 

What  else  he  did,  we  know  not ;  but  he 
returns  to  his  Dutch  Reformed  pulpit  to 
treat  his  dear  brethren  to  a  feast  gathered 
by  him  in  the  purlieus  of  Catholic  Rome ; 
knowing  full  well,  that  such  a  banquet 
would  tickle  the  palates  of  the  godly  peo- 
ple of  Albany. 

It  is  with  Dr.  Clark  as  it  has  been  with 
most  Protestant  preachers,  when  all  other 
arguments  against  Rome  fail,  they  try  to  get 
up  lying  statistics  concerning  the  morality  of 
Catholic  and  Protestant  countries.     On  this 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  199 

subject,  Protestant  ministers  should  forever 
hold  their  peace.  They  and  the  virtue  of 
morality  parted  company  a  long  time  since  ; 
and,  like  two  diverging  lines,  the  farther 
tiny  go  the  wider  will  be  the  breach.  True 
morality  emanated  from  the  Catholic  Church 
of  Christ,  the  fountain  of  purity  and  holi- 
ness. She  has  been,  from  the  beginning,  the 
uncompromising  enemy  of  every  evil  inten- 
tion, every  unclean  thought  and  action. 
Can  there  be  any  thing  more  in  unison  with 
the  Divine  mind  than  her  theology,  more 
acceptable  than  her  offices,  or  more  beauti- 
ful than  her  liturgy?  She  has  opposed  the 
avarice  and  cunning  of  the  Jew,  the  sword  . 
and  imposition  of  the  Mahomedan,  the 
impiety  and  conmption  of  the  Infidel,  the 
fury  of  the  Pagan,  and  the  malignity,  deceit, 
wicked  and  Lying  assaults  of  the  Protestant 
and  the  Apostate.  Eer  mission  is  a  service 
of  love;  she  list. -ns  attentively  to  the  cries 
of  wroe,  rebukes  fche  wayward,  calls  back 
the  erring,  and  pours  the  «>ii  of  consolation 
into  the  wounded,  throbbing  heart  of  hn- 


200  THE    QUESTION   SOLVED. 

inanity.  From  the  peasant's  hut  to  the 
king's  palace,  she  exercises  a  moral  influ- 
ence ;  she  curbs  the  passions  of  the  tyrant, 
and  softens  the  heart  of  the  outlaw.  She 
provides  a  home  for  the  cast-away  and  the 
forlorn,  the  sick  and  the  unfortunate  ;  she 
gives  countenance  and  support  to  every 
useful  occupation  and  to  every  benevolent 
and  humane  enterprise  ;  to  the  weak  she  is 
merciful  and  compassionate,  and  to  the 
strong  she  imparts  lessons  of  wisdom,  so 
that  they  may  exert  their  strength  in  favor 
of  virtue  and  good  works.  She  regulates 
the  conduct  of  her  children  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave,  decrying  vice,  and  inculcating 
practices  of  virtue,  with  a  watchfulness  that 
never  ceases  —  with  an  energy  that  never 
tires.  How,  therefore,  can  she  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  the  irregularities  that  may  at 
times  break  forth  among  a  few  members  of 
her  communion  % 

Compare  the  lives  of  the  Fathers  and 
Doctors  of  the  Church,  with  the  apostates 
and  leaders  of  the  Reformation,  and  the 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  201 

contrast  is  so  great,  that  no  rainbow  of  the 
heavens  could  span  the  gulf  that  lies  be- 
tween. The  former  were  saints,  in  the  true 
acceptation  of  the  word  ;  full  of  faith,  devo- 
tion and  humility,  ever  ready  to  obey  the 

0 

calls  of  duty,  to  deny  themselves,  take  up 
their  cross  and  follow  Christ ;  and  nobly 
did  they  walk  in  the  footsteps  of  their 
Master.  They  endured  hunger  and  thirst, 
toil  and  fatigue,  insult,  and  every  conceiva- 
ble cruelty ;  yet  they  faltered  not  in  their 
path  of  duty,  nor  feared  a  lion  in  the  way. 
On  they  went,  with  their  hands  to  the 
plough,  nor  did  they  look  back,  until  they 
accomplished  their  task  —  they  kept  the 
faith,  and  received  the  crown.  How  was  it 
with  the  latter?  Actuated  by  a  spirit  of 
pride,  a  love  of  display,  and  a  thirst  for 
self-indulgence,  they  bartered  away  every 
noble  action,  and  every  pure  sentiment,  for 
base  and  unworthy  motives ;  perverted  the 
word  of  God  to  justify  their  wayward  pas- 
sions, and  enlisted  their  forces  under  Mars, 
the  god  of  war  and  bloodshed. 


202  THE    QUESTION   SOLVED. 

Where  in  the  ranks  of  Protestantism  can 
yon  find  snch  illustrious  personages  as  SS. 
Gregory,  Ambrose,  Augustine,  Jerome,  Mar- 
tin, Nicholas,  Anthony,  Benedict,  Bernard, 
Francis,  Ignatius,  Basil  the  Great,  Alphon- 
sus   Liguori,  Vincent  de  Paul,  Aloysius  ; 
SS.  Jane  Frances,  Rose  of  Lima,  Bridget, 
Elizabeth  of  Hungary,  Genevieve,  Agnes, 
Agatha,  Euphrasia,  Balbina,  Monica,  Teresa, 
Cecilia,  Catherine  of  Sienna,  and  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  holy  men  and  women 
who   conquered    the    impulses    of   human 
nature,  to    cultivate   the  heavenly  aspira- 
tions of  the  soul.     They  forsook  the  fleeting 
pleasures  of  this  life,  for  the  everlasting 
happiness  of  the  life  to  come.     Search  the 
universe  and  you  cannot  find,  outside  the 
pale  of  the  Church,  the  equal  of  St.  Francis 
Xavier,  or  any  of  the  saints  in  the  Roman 
Calendar.     Even  the  laws  of  nature  yielded 
obedience  to  their  pious  demands,  and  bore 
testimony  to  their  great  sanctity. 

We  will  now  impeach  those  from  whom 
Dr.  Clark  draws  his  inspirations,  and,  lest 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  203 

our  Dutch  Reformers  should  think  that  we 
draw  upon  our  imagination,  we  will  give 
Protestant  authority  as  our  witnesses.  To 
begin  with  their  apostle  and  high  priest 
Luther,  we  accuse  him  of  the  gross  crime  of 
concubinage,  with  a  woman  he  had  seduced 
from  the  paths  of  virtue,  and  from  that  time 
he  gave  full  swing  to  all  his  animal  passions. 
Morgenstern,  a  Protestant,  produces  a  letter 
of  Luther's,  which  decency  forbids  us  to  lay 
before  our  readers  ;  one  sentence  will  suffice, 
"good  drinking,  and  good  eating;  behold 
the  surest  means  of  being  happy  ! " 

Audin,  a  Protestant,  tells  us  that  Luther 
was  on  intimate  terms  of  friendship  with  his 
eatanic  majesty,  the  devil,  in  proof  of  which 
Luther  himself  says:  "  I  have  been  always 
better  treated  by  the  devil  than  by  men  ;  and 
1  would  rather  be  strangled  by  the  devil 
than  by  the  emperor.  I  would  at  least  die 
by  the  hand  of  a  great  man."  In  his  "Table 
Talk."*  1m  •  speaks  eloquently  of  tin  •  "man  in 
black."  "There  are  devils  in  the^ forests, 
in  the  waters,  in  the  marshes,     wherever, 


204  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

in  fine,  there  are  creatures  to  torment.  Some 
hang  on  the  sides  of  black  clouds,  others 
excite  storms,  raise  up  tempests,  hurl 
thunderbolts,  dart  lightnings,  and,  in  fine, 
infect  the  air,  the  sea  and  the  fields.  The 
philosophers  attribute  these  things  to  the 
stars."  He  also  asserts  that  the  devil  is 
the  author  of  all  physical  evils,  of  sickness, 
death,  etc.,  and  undertakes  to  prove  his 
theory  by  the  second  chapter  of  Hebrews. 
He  declares  that  his  own  sickness  at  Coburg 
was  not  a  natural  malady,  but  the  finger 
of  the  devil  pressing  heavily  on  him.  "I 
have  found  many  varieties  of  caterpillar  in 
my  garden,  I  thought  it  was  the  devil  that 
sent  them  to  me.  They  have,  as  it  were, 
horns  on  the  nose  ;  they  have  rings  of  gold 
and  silver ;  outside  they  appear  brilliant, 
inside  they  are  full  of  poison.  The  devil  is 
like  a  fly.  As  soon  as  a  fine  book  appears, 
the  fly  goes  over  its  white  pages,  leaving 
well  known  traces  of  its  presence,  as  much 
as  to  say,  '  I  have  been  there.'  So  the  devil, 
when  he  finds  an  innocent  and  pure  heart, 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  205 

sullies  it."     (See  Frankfort  edition  of  Lu- 
ther's Table  Talk.) 

But  after  a  while,  these  mutual  friends  had 
a  falling  out.  "The  devil  gives  me  no  rest, 
he  annoys  me  night  and  day  ;  at  table  and 
in  bed  ;  in  the  church  and  in  my  study  ;  at 
home  and  even  in  the  cellar  ! ':  While  in  his 
study  at  Wittenberg,  translating  the  Psalms, 
the  devil  would  steal  up  to  him  and  suggest 
wicked  fancies  to  his  imagination.  If  Luther 
pretended  not  to  understand  him,  old  cloven 
foot  would  fly  into  a  passion,  fling  his  papers 
about,  close  or  tear  up  his  book,  and  put  the 
candle  out.  On  one  occasion  the  devil,  in 
the  shape  of  a  fly,  annoyed  him  so  much 
that  he  could  stand  it  no  longer,  and  with 
terrible  voice  cried  out,  "Begone,  Satan!" 
and  buried  tin-  inkstand  at  the  winged  imp. 
I'll.-  ink  stains  are  visible  on  the  castle  wall 
to  this  day.  Hear  him  as  he  mounted  the 
pulpit  of  "All  Saints, "  in  Wittenberg, 
equipped  in  ;i  ••nut  of  mail,  and  a  long  sword 
hanging  by  his  side:  "]  know  Satan;  I 
know  that  he  doefl  not  sleep,  that  his  eye 

18 


206  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

watches  for  trouble  and  desolation.  I  have 
learned  to  wrestle  with  him,  and  do  not  fear 
him  ;  I  have  inflicted  more  than  one  wound 
from  which  he  will  long  suffer.  What  mean, 
then,  these  novelties  which  have  been  intro- 
duced in  my  absence  ?  Was  I  at  such  a 
distance  that  I  could  not  be  consulted  ?  Am 
I  no  longer  the  source  of  pure  doctrine? 
What  must  the  devil  think  when  he  sees 
you  enact  all  your  fancies  ?  The  sly  rogue 
keeps  himself  quiet  in  hell,  since  he  knows 
what  tragedies  you  doctors  are  about  to  ex- 
cite!" meaning  Karlstadt  and  his  brother 
reformers,  who  abolished  the  Mass,  and  gut- 
ted the  old  church  of  All  Saints  of  all  that 
was  rich  and  costly  in  its  decorations,  the 
works  of  piety  and  genius. 

This  proceeding  on  the  part  of  Luther 
called  forth  the  opposition  of  the  assailed, 
and  the  authorities  of  the  city  called  the 
warlike  doctor  to  a  conference,  to  which  he 
responded.  He  there  met  a  famous  cobbler, 
named  Crispin,  who  was  looked  upon  as  a 
great  theologian  among  the  Protestants  of 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  207 

Orlamundi,  and  who  took  sides  against  him. 
The  discussion  being  ended,  the  question 
was  decided  in  favor  of  the  cobbler;  and  the 
seqiml  was,  that  the  warrior  doctor  was 
pelted  with  stones  out  of  the  city,  the  mob 
crying  after  him,  "  May  the  devil  and  his 
imps  have  you  !  May  you  break  yourneck 
and  limbs  before  you  leave  the  city!" 

It  is  needless  to  recite  any  more  from  the 
lips  of  this  bold,  bad  man;  if  the  reader 
should  be  curious  enough  to  look  up  the 
subject,  we  will  refer  him  to  Audin's  Life 
of  Luther,  American  edition.  There  he 
will  find  Luther's  theory  of  Demonology ; 
hi-  famous  conference  with  the  devil;  his 
Satanic  majesty's  overwhelming  argument 
which  completely  demolished  Luther  ;  the 
squabble  of  Martin  and  the  devil,  over  the 
bag  of  nut-,  etc.,  etc.  Over  his  conversation 
on  the  ■■charms  of  beautiful  women,"  we 
prefer  to  draw  our  pen  ;  such  Lasciviousness 
i  qoI  to  be  spoken  or  written,  In  a  Christian 
community;  Lei  it  forever  ulecp  amid  the 
ruin- <>f  the  Blacfe  Eagle  Tavern  ai  Witten 


20S  THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

berg,  that  once  spiritual  retreat  of  Luther 
and  his  drunken  companions  and  fellow 
reformers,  Amsdorf,  Staupitz,  and  Justus 
Jonas.  "I  tremble,"  exclaimed  Melanc- 
thon,  "when  I  think  of  the  passions  of 
Luther!" 

Zwinglius  compares  Luther  to  a  nasty- 
hog,  grunting  around,  tearing  up  the  sweet 
flowers  of  a  fine  garden.  "Luther,"  he 
says,  "cannot  speak  of  God  and  of  holy 
things  but  with  procacity,  great  ignorance 
of  theology,  and  impropriety." 

Let  us  now  bring  John  Calvin  before  the  bar 
of  public  opinion.  He  is  charged  with  com- 
mitting sins  against  nature,  for  which  he 
was  branded ;  he  is  stripped,  and  the  mark 
is  visible  !  The  charge  being  sustained,  his 
apologists  came  forward,  and  with  an  un- 
blushing impudence,  sought  to  justify  him 
on  the  ground  that  St.  Paul  was  marked  in 
like  manner.  We  will  bring  forward  as 
witness,  Galiffe,  himself  a  Calvinist,  and 
author  of  a  work  entitled  Notices  Genealo- 
giques,  published  in  the  city  of  Geneva,  the 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  209 

hot  bed  of  Calvinism.  "Truth,  compels  me 
to  say,  that  John  Calvin  raised  the  standard 
of  the  most  ferocious  intolerance,  of  the 
grossest  superstitions,  and  the  most  impi- 
ous tenets.  A  terrible  apostle,  a  drinker 
of  blood,  from  whose  inquisition  nothing 
l"d.  During  1558  and  1559  he  caused 
one  hundred  and  fourteen  judgments  to  be 
given  in  criminal  matters,  etc.  !"  Next  we 
will  call  Volmar  to  the  stand.  What  do 
you  know  of  your  hero,  Calvin ?  "I  know 
him  to  be  violent  and  perverse,  but  he  is 
the  man  to  further  our  interests  !" 

Bere  comes  Calvin's  favorite  disciple, 
Theodore  Beza,  whose  evidence  is  as  fol- 
low-: "Calvin  could  never  be  trained 
either  in  temperance,  in  honest  habits,  or  in 
truthfulness;  he  was  always  stuck  in  the 
mud."  Our  last  witness  shall  be  Bucer, 
who  declares,  that  "Calvin  in  all  truth  is  a 

mad  dog ;  he  is  a  bad  man Be  on  thy 

guard,  O  Christian  reader!  against  Calvin's 
books." 

Hullinger  pitches  into  Zwinglius,  and 
L8« 


210  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

tells  how  he  was  expelled  from  his  parish 
on  account  of  his  immoralities.  He  ac- 
knowledged his  vices  to  a  friend,  after  this 
fashion:  "If  yon  are  told  that  I  have 
given  in  to  pride,  intemperance,  and  im- 
purities, believe  it,  for  it  is  true :  I  am  a 
prey  to  these  vices  and  many  others."  Lu- 
ther said  of  him,  that  he  was  "satanized, 
in-satanized,  and  over-satanized,  and  that 
he  would  surely  be  damned." 

The  pious  Beza,  who  Protestants  would 
have  us  believe  was  a  model  of  perfection, 
did  not  escape  the  criticism  of  his  co-la- 
borers. Heshussius  asks,  "How  can  any 
one  wonder  at  the  incredible  impudence  of 
this  monster,  whose  lewd  and  infamous  life 
is  so  well  known  over  all  France,  through 
his  epigrams,  worse  than  cynic  ?  And  still 
in  hearing  him,  you  would  say,  that  he  was 
a  holy  man,  another  Job,  or  a  modern  an- 
chorite of  the  desert,  even  a  greater  man 
than  Saint  John  or  Saint  Paul,  he  boasts  so 
much,  on  every  occasion,  of  his  exile,  his 
labors,  his  purity,  and  the  wonderful  sane- 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  211 

tity  of  his  life  !"  Schlussemberg  calls  him 
''an  obscene  man,  equal  to  a  devil  incar- 
nate, kneaded  with  cunning  and  impiety, 
who  can  do  naught  but  belch  forth  satirical 
blasphemies." 

The  Antinomians  cried  out  that  good 
works  were  an  impediment  to  salvation. 
Eaton,  a  Puritan,  taught,  that  "believers 
ought  not  to  mourn  for  sin,  because  it  was 
pardoned  before  it  was  committed."  Rich- 
ard Hill  maintained,  that  "even  adultery 
and  murder  do  not  hurt  the  pleasant  chil- 
dren, but  rather  work  for  their  good."  It 
was  also  preached,  that  God  sees  no  sin  in 
believers,  whatever  sin  they  commit.  "My 
gins  might  displease  God;  my  person  is 
always  acceptable  to  Him.  Though  I  should 
outsin  M;inasses,  I  shall  not  be  less  a  pleas- 
ant child,  because  God  always  views  me  in 
Christ.  Hence,  in  the  midst  of  adulteries, 
murders  and  incest,  he  can  address  me 
with,  'Thou  art  all  lair  my  love,  my  Unde- 
nted, there  is  QO  spot  in  th<-«'.'  It  is  a  most 
pernicious  error  of  the  school   men  to  dis- 


212  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

tinguish  sins  according  to  the  fact,  and  not 
according  to  the  person.  Though  I  blame 
those  who  say,  'let  ns  sin  that  grace  may 
abound,'  yet  adultery,  incest  and  murder 
shall,  upon  the  whole,  make  me  -holier  on 
earth,  and  merrier  in  Heaven."  For  gross 
immoralities  among  our  early  Protestants, 
we  will  refer  the  reader  to  Fletcher' s  work 
on  Antinomianism. 

The  Reformers  themselves  abused  and 
cursed  each  other  in  the  vilest  manner. 
Luther  called  Zwinglius  a  pagan,  and  said 
he  despaired  of  his  salvation.  He  also 
declared,  that  Ecolampadius  was  strangled 
by  the  devil.  Luther  wished  that  Carlostad 
would  break  his  neck,  and  the  latter  desired 
to  see  Luther  broken  on  the  wheel.  Grotius 
testified,  that  it  was  sedition  and  violence 
that  gave  rise  to  the  Reformation  in  Holland. 
Henry  VIII,  it  is  said,  never  spared  a  man 
in  his  anger,  or  a  woman  in  his  lust ;  and 
the  vile  Cranmer,  himself  a  libertine,  who 
changed  his  religion  seventeen  times, 
allowed  the  beastly  monarch  the  full  sway 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  213 

of  his  passions,  and  nowhere  could  you 
find  a  greater  scoundrel.  The  illegitimate 
Elizabeth,  mistress  of  Leicester,  and  the 
murderer  of  her  own  sister,  is  another  fine 
example  of  Protestant  morality. 

Those  apostles  of  perdition,  in  spite  of 
their  hypocrisy,  were  obliged  to  cry  out 
against  the  increasing  depravity  of  the  times. 
"Men,"  said  Luther,  "are  now  more  re- 
vengeful, covetous  and  licentious,  than  they 
ever  were  in  the  Papacy"  ;  and  in  a  letter 
to  the  Christians  of  Antwerp  he  writes, 
"there  are  almost  as  many  creeds  as  heads. 
There  is  no  simpleton,  who,  if  he  happens 
to  have  a  dream,  does  not  believe  himself 
visited  by  God,  or  become  a  prophet." 

The  cruel  Calvin  lamented,  that  "of  the 
many  thousands,  who,  renouncing  Popery, 
.-'•••nu'd  eager  to  embrace  the  gospel,  how 
few  have  amended  their  lives!  Nay,  what 
els.-  d'nl  tlir  givuter  part  pretend  to,  but,  by 
shaking  off  I  he  yoke  of  superstition,  to  give 
themselves  more  Liberty  to  follow  all  kinds 
of  lasciviousnesB  I" 


214  THE   QUESTION   BOLVJBD. 

Another  of  them  says,   "they  give  due 
place  to  the  preaching  of  the  word  of  God, 
but  no   amendment  of  manners   is    found 
among  them  ;  on  the  contrary,  we  see  them 
lead  an   abominable,   voluptuous,   beastly 
life  ;    instead  of  fasts,   they   spend  whole 
days  and  nights  in  revelings  and  drunken- 
ness."    And  how  could  it  be  otherwise, 
when  the  leaders  themselves  were  actuated 
by  motives  of  the  basest  kind,  and  the  peo- 
ple but  reflected  the  excesses  of  their  teach- 
ers?    John  Bockhold,  who  headed  one  of 
the  sects,  had  eleven  wives  at  one  time,  most 
of  whom  he  put  to  death.     Some  ran  naked 
through  the   streets,    and  others    actually 
professed  the  doctrine  of  continuing  in  sin 
that  grace  might  abound.     Modesty  forbids 
me  to  recount  the  prominent  immoralities 
of   the  Family   of   Love.      Fletcher  says, 
"  many  persons  speaking  in  the  most  glori- 
ous manner  of  Christ  and  their  interest  in 
His   complete   salvation,  have  been  found 
living  in  the  greatest  immoralities." 
Frederic  the  Great  says:  "If  the  causes 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  215 

of  the  progress  of  the  Reformation  were  re- 
duced to  simple  principles,  it  would  be  seen 
that  in  Germany  it  was  the  work  of  interest ; 
in  England  that  of  love,  and  in  France  that 
of  novelty." 

In  truth  these  miserable  men,  as  a  distin- 
guished author  declares,  "changed  the 
Christian  religion  into  a  true  pandemonium, 
where  all  dreams,  all  half-truths,  and  all 
errors  can  disport  themselves  at  ease  and 
celebrate  their  Sabbath." 

In  1838  some  of  the  leading  Protestant 
papers  of  Europe  came  out  with  the  plain 
declaration  that  they  could  not  support  any 
longer  the  Reformed  churches  of  Germa- 
ny, Switzerland  and  Prance,  because  they 
"were  corrupted  in  what  constitutes  the  es- 
sence of  Christianity.  The  gnawing  worms 
of  Sooinianism  and  Infidelity,  have,  in  their 
devouring  activity,  penetrated  every  part 
of  the  body,  substance  and  even  heart  of 
these  alien  churches," 

The  British  lb-view,  also,  of  August,  L838, 
calls  what   remains  of  the  Reformation,  in 


21 G  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

those  countries,  "a  mummy,  a  solemn 
corpse,  which  can  no  longer  walk,  nor 
breathe,  nor  live." 

Poor  deluded  maniacs,  you  resemble  the 
foolish  woman,  who  set  fire  to  her  house  to 
free  it  from  cobwebs !  You  deliberately  fol- 
lowed the  inspirations  of  pride,  and  blindly 
obeyed  the  demon  of  self-interest !  You 
broke  the  sweet  yoke  which  bound  you  to 
the  cross  of  Christ,  to  worship  at  the  shrine 
of  ambition  and  false  pleasures !  You 
threw  away  the  torch  of  truth,  for  the  dark 
lantern  of  error  and  falsehood,  and  were 
lost  in  the  mazes  of  heresy  and  speculation ! 

How  could  holiness,  virtue  or  any  other 
godlike  quality  take  root  and  grow  under 
such  influences  and  among  such  a  people  ? 
The  blind  credulity,  unfortunate  aberrations 
of  intellect,  the  deep  and  damning  crimes  of 
depraved  human  nature,  never  showed  with 
such  demoniacal  splendor,  as  in  those  na- 
tions over  which  the  fell  spirit  of  Protestant 
disunion  and  unbelief  hovered.  I  hesitate 
not  to  say  that  the  greater  part  of  the  evils 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  217 

manifest  in  Catholic  countries  and  among 
Catholic  people,  can  be  traced  directly  or 
indirectly  to  the  corrupting  influences  of 
Protestantism. 

Can  the  records  of  the  Christian  Era  point 
us  to  a  more  wicked  or  shameful  set  of  lead- 
ers, in  any  cause,  than  Henry  VIII,  Frederic 
of  Saxony,  Elizabeth  of  England,  Philip, 
Landgrave  of  Hesse,  the  Electors  and 
Princes  of  Germany,  Frederic  I  of  Denmark, 
Gustavus  Vasa  of  Sweden,  the  Lords  of 
Berne  in  Switzerland,  and  the  Prince  of 
Orange  in  Holland  ?  A  bloodier,  more  im- 
pious and  cursed  set  of  rascals,  never  dis- 
graced the  fair  face  of  earth,  or  polluted  the 
kind  atmosphere  of  God's  universe.  In  lust, 
envy,  gluttony,  anger  and  every  other  capi- 
tal sin,  history  places  them  in  the  first 
rank. 

The  preachers  and  disseminators  of  these 
heretical  creeds  were,  in  their  hands,  like 
potters'  clay,  to  be  shaped  as  fancy  dic- 
tated. They  shift <<l  their  willing  dupes  at 
pleasure  from   Lutheranism  to  Calvinism, 

19 


218  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

and  back  again  from  Calvinism  to  Luther- 
anism,  or  any  other  ism  they  chose.  Fred- 
eric III  changed  his  subjects  from  Luther- 
anism  to  Calvinism,  and  made  them  con- 
fess to  a  catechism  of  his  own  compiling. 
When  his  son  Louis  ascended  the  throne 
in  1576,  he  revoked  the  established  laws  of 
his  father,  put  down  Calvinism,  and  re- 
stored the  Lutheran  faith  once  more.  In 
1582  Calvinism  was  again  brought  on  the 
boards  by  another  prince,  and  an  order  was 
issued  that  any  one,  not  submitting  to  the 
decisions  of  Dort,  should  be  banished  the 
country.  In  1586  John  George  substituted 
Calvinism  for  Lutheranism  in  the  province 
of  Anhalt  Dessau,  and  made  it  obligatory 
on  all  to  believe  in  predestination,  under 
penalty  of  exile.  Another  prince  succeeded 
John,  who  compelled  the  people  to  return 
again,  or  suffer  a  like  penalty.  The  same 
transformation  was  practiced  in  Brande- 
bourg,  by  John  Sigismund,  and  also  in 
Hesse  Cassel  in  1614. 
Frederic  William,   of  Prussia,  at  a  far 


THE   QUESTION'   SOLVED.  219 

later  date,  established  an  amalgamated 
faith  in  his  kingdom,  placed  a  veto  on  the 
progress  of  the  Catholic  Church,  raised  the 
decaying  temple  of  Protestantism  to  emi- 
nence, and  called  it  the  "Evangelical 
Church  of  the  Rhine."  He  caused  to  be 
published  statutes  and  ordinances  regula- 
ing  matters  of  religion  at  his  pleasure.  He 
also  directed  the  mode  of  worship,  pre- 
scribed a  kind  of  Mass,  introduced  candles, 
incense,  crucifixes,  etc.,  etc.  But  now  comes 
the  most  laughable  farce  of  all ;  the  Calvin- 
ists  could  not  agree  with  the  Lutherans, 
Rationalists  quarreled  with  both,  and  forth- 
with a  spiritual  row  began  in  the  Evangeli- 
cal camp.  Frederic,  failing  in  polemics, 
yt-t  nothing  daunted,  thought  the  best  way 
to  end  the  discussion  was  by  an  appeal  to 
the  last  argument  of  kings.  He  called  to 
his  aid  two  hundred  thousand  muskets, 
and,  with  this  spiritual  phalanx  of  bristling 
bayonets,  lie  very  soon  forced  obedience  to 

his  decisions,  and  the  Cameras  Agenda  was 

recognized  as  the  embodiment  of  all  that 


220  THE   QUESTION  SOLVED. 

was  good  and  wise  in  religion.  There  was 
but  one  village  in  the  realm  that  showed 
signs  of  dissatisfaction ;  the  population  of 
Oels  closed  their  houses  of  worship  against 
the  preachers  of  the  new  organization,  but 
a  battalion  of  infantry  was  sent  against 
them.  The  people  showed  some  resistance, 
when,  by  a  well  directed  volley,  a  large 
number  of  the  inhabitants  were  killed  and 
wounded.  This  put  a  stop  to  all  opposi- 
tion, and  from  ten  to  fourteen  bailiffs  were 
quartered  in  each  family  until  the  insur- 
gents expressed  their  unqualified  faith  in 
the  infallibility  of  his  royal  highness,  Fred- 
eric William. 

In  Sweden  the  same  may  be  said  of  the 
royal  Gustave.  He  ruled  the  consciences 
of  his  subjects  with  a  rod  of  iron. 

In  the  face  of  such  testimony,  how  can 
those  hireling  preachers  have  the  brazen 
effrontery  to  step  forward  and  claim  for 
Protestant  countries  all  the  good  morals, 
just  views,  and  liberal  enactments  ?  There 
are  some  men  who  delight  to  excel  in  im- 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  221 

pudence,  and  our  belligerent  friend  of  the 
" two-steepled  church"  is  one  of  them  ;  but 
we  can  tell  him  that  the  base  servility  of  his 
king-worshiping  sectaries  is  no  more  to  be 
compared  to  the  noble  principles  and  prac- 
tices of  Catholics  in  all  that  concerns  the 
moral  dignity  of  man,  than  the  flickering 
taper  that  burned  in  the  sepulchre  of  Rosi- 
crusius  is  to  the  god  of  day. 

19* 


CHAP.  xn. 

Morality  of  catholic  and  protestant  countries—  intemper. 
anck  — sir  francis  head  compliments  ireland  — fearful 
list  of  8purious  births  in  protestant  countries  —  rev. 
dr.  halley's  opinion  of  immorality  and  unbelief  in  ge- 
neva—mr. laing's  statistics  — contrast  between  catholic 
and  protestant  cantons  of  switzerland  —  no  restraint 
among  protestant  youth  — crime  on  the  increase  —  foeti- 
cide and  infanticide  — divorce  laws  —  immoralities  in  and 
around  the  halls  of  legislation  —  clerical  villains  of 
the  protestant  stripe— protestant  cupidity  —  the  dutch 
the  only  people  capable  of  trampling  on  the  cboss  in 
the  ports  of  japan  —  the  hollownes8  of  protestant  piety 
—  predictions  of  protestants  —  some  hope  of  db.  clabk's 
conversion. 

WHEN  Catholic  countries  are  accused  of 
being  more  prolific  in  crime  than  Prot- 
estant ones,  we  take  it  that  our  accusers  do 
not  believe  it  themselves  ;  they  are  actuated 
more  from  a  spirit  of  malice  and  jealousy 
than  otherwise;  or,  to  be  more  charitable, 
if  any  of  them  really  think  they  are  in  the 
right,  I  would  earnestly  request  them  to 
study  facts,  and  not  to  be  deluded  by  their 
religious  teachers,  whose  chief  aim  is  to 
deceive. 

Let  us  take  intemperance  for  example, 
and  we  shall  find  that  this  degrading  vice  is 
much  more  common  in  Protestant  than  in 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  223 

Catholic  nations.  In  England,  Holland, 
Sweden,  Scotland,  Denmark,  and  the  United 
States,  it  is  very  common  ;  while  in  France, 
Italy,  Spain,  Portugal,  and  most  Catholic 
countries,  it  is  very  rare.  In  London  alone, 
there  is  more  drunkenness  than  in  all  the 
Catholic  cities  of  Europe.  According  to  a 
parliamentary  report  made  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  a  few  years  ago,  the  appalling 
fact  was  recorded,  that  twelve  thousand 
females  roamed  the  streets  of  London  as 
notorious  public  drunkards.  In  England, 
thirty-two  million  gallons  of  spirituous 
liquors  are  used  annually,  besides  immense 
quantities  of  wine  and  malt  liquors. 

There  is  more  whisky  used  in  Scotland, 
in  proportion  to  the  population,  than  in  any 
other  country  in  Europe.  It  is  estimated 
that,  in  Glasgow  alum*,  thirty  thousand  of 
its  citizens  go  to  bed  drunk  every  Saturday 

night. 

Notwithstanding  the  misery  and  wretch- 
edness thai  Protestanl  rule  entails  upon 
Catholic  Inland,  and  that  such  a  condition 


224  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

is  favorable  to  the  vice  of  intemperance,  it 
is  remarkable  how  the  poor  Irish,  as  a  class, 
keep  themselves  as  free  from  drunkenness 
as  they  do,  in  their  native  country.  Sir 
Francis  Head,  who  was  once  Governor- 
General  of  Canada,  wrote  a  book,  which  he 
entitled,  "Two  weeks  in  Ireland."  He  re- 
lates, in  that  little  work,  that  he  expected 
to  find,  there,  terrible  exhibitions  of  the  vice 
of  intemperance  ;  but  he  was  agreeably  dis 
appointed  ;  for  he  affirms,  that,  in  his  tour 
through  the  country,  he  saw  but  two 
drunken  men.  It  is  to  be  deeply  regretted 
that  they  do  not  observe  the  same  modera- 
tion in  the  land  of  their  adoption  ;  but  there 
are  many  excuses  to  be  made  in  their  favor. 
They  are  a  sociable,  warm-hearted  people, 
given  to  hospitality,  and  brimful  of  friend- 
ship and  hilarity,  so  that  it  is  not  difficult 
to  bring  them  to  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  glass :  besides,  they  are  a  hard- 
working class,  and  fatigue  and  exhaustion 
too  often  prostrate  their  sturdy  physical 
constitutions ;  and,  as  alcoholic  stimulants 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  225 

are  the  commonest  and  easiest  to  be  pro- 
cured, of  all  the  exciting  agents  calculated 
to  restore  the  debilitated  system,  it  is  not 
at  all  strange  that  these  poor  sons  of  toil 
should  indulge  occasionally,  and,  from 
frequent  practice,  acquire  the  habit  of 
taking  too  much.  Again,  they  are  con- 
tinually coming  in  contact  with  friends 
of  their  youth,  from  the  far-off  land  of 
their  nativity,  whom  they  may  not  have 
seen  for  many,  many  years  ;  and,  as  it  has 
been  the  custom,  from  time  immemorial, 
when  long  parted  friends  do  meet,  to 
bring  into  requisition  the  social  glass,  the 
poor  Irish  man,  situated  as  he  is  in  a  foreign 
land,  with  temptations  all  around  him,  must 
hare  more  than  the  ordinary  amount  of  self- 
denial  to  resist. 

But  he  is  not  alone  in  this  practice  of 
drinking  a  drop  too  much;  other  nationali- 
ties are  not  far  behind  him,  and  in  many 
M  outstrip  him.  The  Yankee  drinks  New 
England  rum  and  old  rye  until  he  becomes 
as  blind  as  a  bat,  then  pokes  himself  away 


226  THE  QUESTION  SOLVED. 

in  some  nook  or  corner  until  he  gets  sober. 
The  Englishman  guzzles  his  gin  and  "hold 
hale"  until  he  is  as  full  as  a  leech,  drops 
himself  away  in  his  bed  or  his  chair  to  sleep 
it  all  away,  and  awakens  only  to  go  at  it 
again.  The  Dutchman  is  not  far  behind  ;  he 
will  pitch  into  his  lager  and  Rhine  wine  until 
he  makes  a  beast  of  himself,  and  so  with  all 
the  rest.  Each  has  his  favorite  intoxicating 
beverage — from  old  Aunt  Sarah's  bottle  of 
peppermint  to  the  Congressman's  cham- 
pagne. 

The  most  noticeable  of  all  is  the  compari- 
son of  the  virtue  of  chastity.  Sweden,  which 
is  almost  entirely  Protestant,  is  the  most 
immoral  country  in  all  Europe  ;  and  Stock- 
holm, its  capital,  is  the  most  immoral  city 
in  the  whole  world.  The  number  of  persons 
convicted  of  heinous  crimes  and  beastly 
practices  in  that  nation,  in  1837,  according 
to  Mr.  Laing's  report,  was  twenty-one  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and  sixty-six,  in  a  popu- 
lation of  three  million ;  and  in  1836,  one  to 
one  hundred  and  thirty-four  of  the  whole 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  227 

number  were  convicted  for  the  like  crimes, 
being  a  still  greater  proportion.  The  pro- 
portion of  illegitimate  births  in  that  thor- 
oughly Protestant  country  is  as  one  to 
fourteen,  and  in  Stockholm  one  to  one  and 
a  half.  The  Swedish  consul  at  London 
denied  Mr.  Laing's  statements,  when  the 
latter  gentleman  proved  beyond  a  doubt 
that  his  figures  were  correct.  The  number 
of  divorces  in  1838  were  one  hundred  and 
forty-seven;  of  suicides,  one  hundred  and 
seventy-two.  In  the  same  year,  in  Stock- 
holm, out  of  two  thousand  seven  hundred 
and  fourteen  children  born  there,  one  thou- 
sand one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  were 
illegitimate.  When  we  take  into  con- 
sideration the  position  of  Sweden  on  the 
map  of  Europe,  with  no  influx  of  strangers, 
no  largo  manufacturing  establishments,  the 
majority  of  the  population  being  engaged  in 
agriculture,  and  having  a  well-constructed 
church  establishment,  being  amply  provided 
with  Sunday  schools  and  Bibles,  we  are  at 


228  THE    QUESTION-   SOLVED. 

a  loss  to  know  the  cause  of  this  demoraliza- 
tion.    Will  Dr.  Clark  please  inform  us  ? 

England  comes  next  in  the  scale  of  moral 
degradation.  The  number  convicted  of  crime 
on  an  average,  yearly,  is  in  the  ratio  of  one 
to  nine  hundred  and  sixty  of  the  whole 
population.  When  Bible  societies  were  first 
organized  in  England,  the  Mecca  whence 
Dr.  Clark  turns  his  eyes  in  adoration,  the 
annual  receipts  footed  up  the  large  sum  of 
five  hundred  thousand  dollars  ;  and  the 
prediction  was  that  depravity  would  wing 
its  way  to  Catholic  countries,  and  England 
would  become  the  New  Jerusalem.  But 
mark  the  sequel !  By  a  return  made  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  June  5th,  1818,  it  was 
shown  that,  as  the  Bible  Society  progressed, 
the  amount  of  crime  increased  fourfold. 

There  were  committed  for  trial  in  1805,  4,605 

"                "                "            1817,  18,932 

There  were  sentenced  to  be  hung  in  1805,  350 

«                "                  "          1817,  1,302 

Behold  your  Biblical  influence,  great  doctor  ! 
London  comes  next  in  crime  to  Stockholm. 


THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED.  229 

There  are  over  eighty  thousand  abandoned 
females  in  that  city,  besides  a  large  number 
of  private  women  ot  easy  or  doubtful  virtue ; 
and  more  than  two  hundred  schools  where 
boys  and  girls  are  trained  to  be  skillful 
thieves  and  pickpockets. 

In  English  poor-houses  there  were  sixty- 
six  thousand  illegitimate  births  to  ninety- 
four  thousand  legitimate  ;  in  Wales,  of  five 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  forty-seven 
births,  three  thousand  and  seventy  were 
illegitimate,  and  in  Scotland  seven  in  every 
ten  are  illegitimate. 

In  Ireland  the  proportion  of  the  same  class 
is  very  small ;  in  the  Catholic  province  of 
Munster  it  is  not  one  in  twenty. 

Catholic  Naples,  toward  which  our  Rev- 
erend lecturer  exhibited  not  a  little  acri- 
mony, shows  in  the  above  regard  but  one 
hundred  and  thirty  to  fifteen  thousand. 
From  whom  did  yon  get  your  information, 
wonderful  Dr.  Clark  i 

Of  Prussian  molality,  our  candid  Presby- 
terian paints  a  most  fearful  picture.    Vices, 

20 


230  THE  QUESTION  SOLVED. 

which  in  Catholic  countries  would  be  looked 
upon  as  most  disgraceful,  would  excite  no 
surprise  in  that  land  of  public  schools  and 
Bible-teaching.  Such  crimes  in  Prussia,  in 
the  words  of  Mr.  Laing,  are  called  "youth- 
ful indiscretions!"  In  another  place  he 
affirms  that  "the  Prussians,  morally,  are 
slaves  of  enslaved  minds."  Every  thing  is 
compulsory  there,  not  only  in  education 
but  religion  also — the  freedom  of  the  will  is 
entirely  abrogated ;  the  moral  training  of 
the  child  is  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
parents  by  state  authority,  and  it  follows 
that  not  only  filial  aifection  is  destroyed, 
but  the  father  and  mother  are  positively  de- 
graded. 

The  same  author  gives  us  another  picture 
of  the  religious  state  of  Geneva,  which  sur- 
passes any  thing  that  we  have  ever  heard 
or  read  of.  "Geneva,  the  seat  and  center 
of  Calvinism,  the  fountain  head  from  which 
the  pure  and  living  waters  of  our  Scottish 
Zion  flow  .  .  .  has  fallen  lower  from 
her  original  doctrine  and  practice  than  ever 


THE  QUESTION  SOLVED.  231 

Rome  fell.  Rome  lias  still  superstition; 
Geneva  has  not  even  the  semblance  of  relig- 
ion I "  He  then  tells  of  picnics,  ball-rooms, 
concert  saloons,  billiards,  skittles,  the  shout, 
and  the  shots  of  the  rifle  clubs,  to  be  seen 
and  heard  everywhere  on  the  Sunday  and 
during  the  hours  set  apart  for  religious 
worship  by  all  Christian  communities.  He 
then  gives  a  pitiful  description  of  the  ser- 
vices held  in  the  old  church  in  which  the 
apostle  of  predestination  once  held  forth. 
The  congregation  consisted  of  a  few  females 
and  less  than  two  dozen  of  very  old  men ; 
and  the  sermon  he  characterizes  as  a  disser- 
tation which  might  with  more  propriety 
have  been  delivered  the  evening  before  at  a 
meeting  of  some  scientific  body.  The  same 
author  in  commenting  on  the  devotional 
aspect  of  the  audience  says,  the  "male  por- 
tion (^  the  congregation  kept  their  hats  on 
during  the  entire  lermon." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Bailey  of  this  city  (com- 
pared to  whom  I : u t'u,  W.  Clark,  D.  1).,  is 
but  a  tyro  in  literature,  and  who,  by  the 


232  THE   QUESTION  SOLVED. 

way,  is  far  from  being  a  bigot,  if  we  are  to 
judge  from  his  interesting  letters  to  the 
Argus  during  his  tour  through  Europe  in 
the  summer  of  1868),  writes  of  Geneva  as 
follows:  "We  visited  the  Cathedral  and 
had  the  privilege  to  stand  in  the  pulpit  once 
occupied  by  the  illustrious  Calvin.  It 
grieves  us  to  learn  that  this  city  has  wofully 
swerved  from  her  past  faith,  that  Rational- 
ism and  Infidelity  have  to  a  great  extent 
supplanted  the  pure  doctrines  of  Christian- 
ity, and  that,  at  one  time  the  bulwark  of  the 
truth  and  the  resort  of  illustrious  refugees 
from  all  parts  of  Europe,  it  is  now  pervaded 
with  latitudinarianism  and  heresy." 

Of  the  two  Cantons  which  form  the  Swiss 
Confederation,  one  is  Catholic,  the  other 
Protestant ;  and  every  honest  and  intelli- 
gent traveler  bears  testimony  to  the  supe- 
riority of  the  former  over  the  latter,  for 
morality  and  religion.  It  is  true,  that  the 
Protestant  Canton  is  the  wealthiest,  but  this 
can  be  easily  accounted  for.  The  richest 
soil,  the  best  water  privileges,  the  best  roads 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  233 

and  trading  places,  are  situated  in  the  lower 
half  of  Switzerland,  and  besides,  the  people 
are  more  selfish  and  worldly  minded  than 
in  the  upper  Canton,  which  is  mountainous 
and  barren  for  the  most  part :  so  that  Prot- 
estantism has  no  more  to  do  with  the  ap- 
parent prosperous  condition  of  the  beautiful 
valleys  of  Switzerland  than  the  religion 
of  the  Anthropophagi  of  Polynesia.  Mr. 
Laing  says:  "The  religious  influence  is  at 
its  minimum  in  Protestant,  and  at  its  max- 
imum in  Catholic,  Switzerland." 

Italy  has  been  the  mad  dog  of  Europe, 
with  Protestant  writers  and  speakers,  for 
tin* -t-  hundred  years  ;  in  their  estimation 
she  should  be  blotted  from  the  map  of  the 
world.  Italians  may  have  their  vices  (for 
what  people  have  not  I)  but  if  we  place  them 
side  by  sid»-  with  the  Protestant  population 
of  England  (and  I  might  come  a  little  nearer 
home,  I  think)  in  looks,  manners,  intel- 
ligence, and  moral  worth,  they  will  hold 
their  own  You  will  see  more  drunkenness 
and  quarreling,  hear  more  blasphemy  and 

20* 


234:  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

foul  language  in  one  street,  and  in  one  day, 
in  an  English  or  American  city,  than  you 
see  or  hear  in  all  the  Catholic  towns  of 
Europe  in  an  age.  There  is  a  native  polite- 
ness among  many  of  those  old  peoples  which 
is  to  be  attributed  to  Catholic  teaching. 

Ask  an  Englishman  to  show  you  the  way 
to  Cheapside  in  London,  and  if  he  conde- 
scends to  answer  you  at  all,  he  will  turn 
around  gruffly  and  tell  you,  "away  down 
that  way,"  and  pass  on ;  a  Yankee  will  ask 
you  "where  you  came  from,  where  you  are 
going  to,  and  what  is  your  business  ;"  but 
ask  a  Frenchman  or  an  Italian  to  do  you 
the  same  favor,  and  he  will  answer  you 
with  a  smile,  and  take  the  greatest  pains 
to  set  you  right.  I  have  never  known  a 
truly  Christian  man,  who  was  not  also  a 
polite  man. 

Take  the  Irish  as  a  class,  whom  our  Prot- 
estant friends  delight  in  calling  "low," 
"vulgar,"  and  "uncivilized,"  and  they  pos- 
sess a  fineness  of  feeling,  and  a  delicacy  of 
expression  that  all  travelers  admire.      Let 


THE  QUESTION-  SOLVED.  235 

two  strangers  meet  on  the  highway  in  Ire- 
land, and  they  will  salute  each  other  with 
some  Christian  expression,  such  as  "God 
save  you,  sir!"  "God  save  you  kindly!" 
and  then  pass  along,  each  his  own  way.  In 
some  other  countries,  you  meet  a  man  and 
he  will  eye  you  with  suspicion,  pull  down 
his  brows  with  an  ill-natured  expression,  as 
if  he  would  like  to  do  you  bodily  harm. 
The  wicked  and  bad  thought  seems  to  be 
always  uppermost  with  some  people.  See 
what  a  back-biting,  calumniating,  jealous, 
and  begrudging  class  you  will  find  in  mostly 
all  our  communities,  and  church  members 
are  not  the  least  exempt  from  the  charge, 
their  ministers  setting  the  example.  Ask 
that  little  barefooted  boy  who  trudges  along 
the  road  side,  in  one  of  the  most  primitive 
parte  of  Ireland,  a  question,  and  he  will  an- 
swer, "Yes,  sir,"  or  "No,  sir,"  with  perfect 
respect ;  ask  one  of  our  American  youths, 
and  be  will  look  at  you  with  perfect  indif- 
ference, and  reply,  "Well,  r  don't  know," 
or  "Guess  so,"  and  the  like;  and  if  you 


236  THE   QUESTION   SOLVED. 

should  chance  to  rebuke  him  for  his  want 
of  good  manners,  ten  chances  to  one,  he 
will  swear  at  you,  or  shake  his  fist  in  your 
face.  Such  rude  dispositions  are  not  con- 
fined to  any  one  class  either  ;  they  are  as 
often  found  among  the  children  of  our  fash- 
ionable circles,  as  in  those  of  their  poorer 
neighbors. 

A  mixing  up  of  the  youth  of  both  sexes, 
with  very  little  restraint,  is  not  only  unwar- 
ranted but  dangerous  ;  nevertheless  it  is  very 
common  in  Protestant  countries.  A  little 
lad,  recently  emerged  from  petticoats,  and 
with  hardly  an  idea  beyond  a  game  of  mar- 
bles, will,  with  the  assurance  of  a  full  grown 
man,  call  to  see  a  young  miss  in  her  best 
bib  and  tucker.  The  friends  of  each  call  it 
"cunning,"  and  the  parents  will  even  allow 
considerable  familiarity,  and  oftentimes  en- 
courage this  sort  of  baby  courtship,  which, 
to  say  the  least,  is  not  always  productive  of 
sound  morality. 

Protestant  ministers  are  forever  harping 
on  the  vices  and  ignorance  of  Catholic  chil- 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  237 

dren ;  and  it  is  contemptibly  mean  in  them 
to  stuff  the  minds  of  their  Sunday  School 
classes,  as  they  are  in  the  habit  of  doing, 
with  anecdotes  and  lying  stories  concerning 
them.  In  this  they  commit  a  double  sin  — 
by  doing  a  great  and  scandalous  injury  to 
the  one  party,  and  outrageously  deceiving 
the  other.  We  will  put  the  question  to  any 
fair,  unprejudiced  traveler,  if  he  has  ever, 
in  his  journeyings  through  Catholic  nations, 
found  ruder  children  than  he  has  seen  here 
in  these  United  States,  notwithstanding  our 
boasted  public  instruction  and  plentiful  sup- 
ply of  Bibles  and  Sunday  Schools  ? 

I  would  be.  safe  in  saying  that  a  girl  of 
twelve  years  of  age,  in  a  Protestant  school, 
knows  more  about  matters  pertaining  to  her 
constitution  than  a  Catholic  woman  of  sixty 
in  any  other  country.  How  came  she  with 
this  kind  of  knowledge?  Let  Dr.  Clark  an- 
swer !  A  few  years  ago  T  met  an  intelligent 
farmer,  who  in  the  course  of  conversation 
informed  me  that  the  country  around  where 
he  resided  was  flooded  with  a  certain  species 


238  THE  QUESTION-  SOLVED. 

of  literature,  immoral  and  debasing  in  its 
influences,  and  which  the  youth  of  both 
sexes  sought  with  avidity ;  that  most  of  the 
young  men  and  women  had  a  copy  hid  away 
in  their  trunks  ! 

There  was  a  filthy  publication  started  in 
New  York  a  few  years  since,  which  had  a 
wide  circulation,  not  only  among  the  de- 
praved, but  was  liberally  patronized  by 
what  is  called  the  "better  class" — even  by 
many  who  stood  high  in  their  respective 
churches,  as  was  shown  by  the  arrest  of  the 
proprietor  and  seizure  of  the  books  of  the 

concern.     I  was  visiting  a  friend  in  W , 

Connecticut,  at  the  time,  and  well  do  I  re- 
member the  commotion  made  in  that  city 
of  evangelical  purity,  when  the  agent  lo- 
cated there  had  his  books  confiscated.  The 
number  of  copies  sold  in  that  little  city 
alone  was  fearful  to  contemplate  ;  and  to 
the  credit  of  the  Catholic  population,  who 
form  nearly  half,  not  a  single  Catholic  name 
was  found  on  the  list  of  the  ruffian's  sub- 
scribers.    In  countries  where  Catholicism 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  239 

predominates,  you  will  not  find  a  degrading 
publication,  unless  by  stealth.  If  your  wife 
or  daughter  take  up  the  morning  paper, 
their  eyes  will  not  fall  upon  "personals," 
or  other  degrading  advertisements.  There 
may  be  a  city  like  Paris,  for  example,  where 
Protestantism  and  Infidelity  form  a  large 
proportion  ;  there  you  may  find  obscene  and 
impure  literature;  but  thank  God  for  the 
kind  care  and  watchfulness  of  His  Holy 
Church,  that  protects  her  children  from  these 
seducting  and  vile  influences. 

What  sort  of  an  opinion  would  a  stranger 
form  of  the  moral  condition  of  this  Repub- 
lic, who  should  read  the  columns  of  our 
daily  and  weekly  papers?  What  a  fearful 
list  of  murders,  thefts,  highway  robberies, 
anon,  defalcations,  breaches  of  trust,  big- 
amy, seduction,  drunkenness,  gambling, 
8uici<l<'.  t  he  common  practice  of  foeticide  and 
infanticide,  the  unhallowed  laws  of  divorce, 
etc.,  etc.  Protestantism  is  powerless  to  stop 
this  surging  tide  of  vice  which  sweeps  over 
the  land.    The  Catholic  Church,  of  all  others, 


24:0  THE   QUESTION"  SOLVED. 

stands  pre-eminent  in  checking  this  overflow 
of  sin  and  folly ;  and,  because  she  inter- 
poses a  barrier,  the  vampires  of  our  schools 
of  modern  progress  accuse  her  of  crimes  of 
which  she  is  not  guilty,  and  lay  plans  for 
her  destruction,  by  placing  her  in  a  false 
light  before  the  people.  They  aim  to  suck 
out  the  life  blood  of  her  constitution,  in 
order  to  paralyze  her  efforts  for  good. 
Strange  and  reckless  infatuation !  Will 
error  and  deceit  forever  strive  with  truth 
and  holiness ! 

Behold  what  pictures  are  drawn  of  the 
scenes  in  and  around  the  halls  of  legisla- 
tion, even  the  Congress  of  the  United  States ! 
Hear  the  vile  abuse,  the  bandying  of  foul 
epithets,  the  charges  and  counter-charges 
of  the  representatives  of  the  people  against 
each  other ! 

See  the  long  list  of  clerical  villains,  of 
the  Protestant  stripe,  in  every  State  in  the 
Union,  who  have  been  charged  and  found 
guilty  of  all  manner  of  crime ;  and  then 
say  that  Protestanism  is  in  the  odor  of 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  241 

sanctity.  Whenever  I  meet  a  Protestant 
minister  I  shudder ;  for  faith  tells  me  that 
he  is  an  ambassador  of  the  evil  one  ;  a  kid- 
naper of  souls,  and  a  traitor  to  the  cause 
of  Christ  and  the  everlasting  welfare  of 
mankind.  Shame  on  the  lazy  pack !  They 
eat  the  bread  of  idleness,  and  fatten  on  the 
carcass  of  a  nondescript  and  dead  faith. 
The  execration  of  Moses  is  already  upon 
them,  for  he  hath  said,  "  Cursed  be  he  that 
maketh  the  blind  to  wander  out  of  the  way. 
And  all  the  people  shall  say,  Amen  !  " 

But  Dr.  Clark  will  have  it,  that  all  this 
depravity  maybe  cured  by  the  dissemina- 
tion of  Bibles  and  Lying  tracts,  without 
which,  we  will  all  go  to  Hong  Kong.  He 
cites  several  examples  of  the  power  which 
the  Bible  wields  againsl  the  lawless  and  the 
depraved,  particularly  the  class  called  "jail- 
birds." Ee  ased  up  considerable  "blar- 
ney "  «»n  two  certain  jailers,  one  of  whom 
resided  in  the  blessed  State  of  Connecticut, 
and  the  other  in  the  goodly  city  <>('  Albany. 
These  gentlemen  informed  him  thai  they 
•.'I 


242  THE  QUESTION  SOLVED. 

could  not  govern  a  prison  without  Bible  aid. 
We  commend  them  for  every  effort  they 
make  to  reform  the  offender ;  but,  when 
they  assert  their  inability  to  control  a  house 
of  correction  without  Biblical  assistance, 
we  pronounce  it  all  gammon.  It  is  the  iron 
door  and  great  key,  the  musket  and  the 
strong  inclosure  that  do  the  business  ;  tact 
and  good  judgment  being,  of  course,  indis- 
pensable. We  will  now  hear  the  evidence 
of  another  Protestant,  Mr.  Joseph  Kean, 
Warden  of  the  penitentiary  on  Blackwell'  s 
Island  for  the  past  twenty  years.  He  told 
me,  personally,  that  he  was  always  on  the 
alert  for  the  convict  who,  with  a  sanctimo- 
nious face,  asked  him  for  a  Bible.  He 
declared  that  such  fellows  were  the  biggest 
scoundrels,  and  he  would  not  allow  them 
any  privileges. 

This  distribution  of  Bibles,  which  our  wise 
doctor  advocates,  together  with  the  common 
license  of  private  interpretation,  is  the  iden- 
tical rock  that  split  the  craft  of  Protestant- 
ism in  twain,  shattered  all  her  timbers,  and 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  243 

left  the  wreck  floating  and  floundering  on 
the  seething  waters  of  doubt  and  disunion ; 
and  there  she  will  remain,  the  drift-wood 
of  Christianity,  until  she  is  lost  in  oblivion. 
Our  neighbor  attributes  every  enterprise 
in  art,  science,  trade,  and  commerce,  to  the 
influence  of  the  Bible.  As  the  revelation 
of  God  to  man,  the  history  of  the  birth  and 
establishment  of  Christianity,  and  the  record 
of  the  great  drama  enacted  on  the  hill  of 
Calvary,  it  is  certainly  a  pearl  of  great 
price ;  but  when  it  is  made  subservient  to 
the  sordid  interests  of  man,  it  becomes  a 
curse  rather  than  a  blessing,  because,  by  its 
aid,  the  truth  of  God  is  turned  into  a  lie. 
How  often  have  I  seen  men  with  "Bible," 
"Bible,"  on  the  end  of  their  tongues,  play 
the  role  of  the  false  disciple  (  O,  ye  emis- 
saries of  Satan,  I  know  you  well!  Your 
cupidity  has  no  bounds!  Dr.  Milner  ex- 
pressed the  Protest  ;ml  Idea  to  a  dot,  when 
he  said,  "The  tempoi-il  interest  of  their 
religion  ifl  the  ruling  principle  of  their 
morality , 


1 1 


244  THE   QUESTION"    SOLVED. 

There  is  not,  perhaps,  another  instance  in 
the  category  of  meanness,  ingratitude  and 
perfidy,  since  the  day  that  Iscariot  betrayed 
his  blessed  Master,  equal  to  that  of  the 
venal  Dutch  merchants  in  the  harbors  of 
Japan.  After  the  Catholic  missionaries  had 
been  butchered,  their  churches  destroyed, 
and  the  homes  of  their  adherents  made  deso- 
late, the  ports  of  that  barbarous  nation  were 
closed  against  all  foreigners  except  the  Chi- 
nese, unless  they  complied  with  the  Empe- 
ror's conditions,  the  chief  feature  of  which 
was,  that  all  hailing  from  Christian  nations 
should  trample  on  the  cross.  None  were 
found  base  enough  to  comply  with  such  a 
heathenish  demand,  until  the  Hollanders 
came  along,  when,  Judas  like,  they  not  only 
trampled  on  the  glorious  emblem  of  man's 
salvation,  but  denied  having  any  thing  in 
common  with  Christians,  and  thus  suc- 
ceeded in  selling  their  God  for  a  cargo  of 
merchandise. 

I  am  very  suspicious,  my  dear  doctor,  that 
much  of  this  hub-bub  about  the  "schools," 


THE   QUESTION   SOLVED.  245 

and  great  love  for  the  Bible  is  put  on;  it 
may  be  a  mercenary  trick  after  all.  I  have 
seen  men  like  you  before,  who,  notwith- 
standing their  high  pretensions,  turned  out 
to  be  regular  humbugs  ;  and  not  a  few,  who 
had  never  studied  the  religious  question 
beyond  the  length  of  their  own  tether.  I 
remember  to  have  seen  and  heard  of  such 
fellows  in  the  old  country  when  I  was 
a  little  boy,  and  not  one  of  them  ever 
amounted  to  a  row  of  pins.  There  were  a 
few  who  started  out  with  the  " no-popery" 
cry,  who  had  the  honesty  and  manliness  to 
renounn-  their  errors,  after  being  set  right 
by  superior  minds,  and  became  humble 
])ii])ils  in  the  school  of  Christ. 

Dr.  Cummings,  of  London,  used  to  be 
the  greal  Exeter  Hull  champion,  but  the 
poor  fellow  became  crazy.  Be  went  from 
one  subjeel  to  another,  mixing  up  one 
theory  with  the  next,  until  his  most  inii 
mate  friends  could  not  tell  whal  he  was 
driving  at.  Il«'  then  became  a  prophet,  and 
Bel  the  time,  qoI  only  for  the  downfall  of  the 

21* 


246  THE   QUESTION"   SOLVED. 

"man  of  sin,"  but  the  destruction  of  the 
world,  which  was  to  have  taken  place  in  1849. 
Twenty  summers  have  come  and  gone  since 
then,  and  old  mother  earth  is  as  dignified 
as  ever,  hale  and  hearty;  Pius  IX  is  far 
more  secure  in  the  chair  of  Peter  than  he 
was  then,  and  the  last  that  I  heard  of 
Cummings  he  was  making  a  goose  of  him- 
self writing  letters  to  the  Pope. 

I  recollect  another  young  man,  full  of 
zeal  for  the  Protestant  cause,  and  as  elo- 
quent and  commanding  as  Wendell  Phillips 
ever  was.      He  fancied  himself  especially 
called  to  deal  a  fatal  blow  to  the  papacy, 
and  created  a  terrible  excitement  in  and 
around  Birmingham.     He   lectured,  wrote 
and  preached  with  the  vehemence  and  im- 
petuosity of  a  Luther;   but  what  was  the 
result,  think  you  %    God  saw  that  he  started 
out  with  a  candid  mind   and   an   honest 
heart,  and,  like  St.  Paul,  he  was  arrested 
in  his  course.     The  light  of  truth  beamed 
upon  him ;  he  at  once  discovered  his  error, 
went  straightway  to  the  venerable  Bishop 
of  Birmingham,  cast  himself  in  humility  at 


THE   QUESTION  SOLVED.  247 

the  feet  of  the  prelate,  and  begged  to  be 
received  into  the  bosom  of  that  Church  he 
had  so  bitterly  opposed.  With  the  meek- 
ness of  a  little  child  he  humbled  himself  at 
the  foot  of  the  cross,  sought  forgiveness  for 
the  evil  he  had  done,  and  the  once  brave 
and  eloquent  John  Mason  did  penance  in  a 
cloister  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Who  knows,  Doctor,  but  you  might  one 
of  these  days  go  and  do  likewise?  'Tis 
true,  that  the  longer  a  man  keeps  on  in  his 
sin-;,  the  harder  it  is  for  him  to  renounce 
them  ;  but  still  we  have  the  assurance,  that 

"  While  the  lamp  holds  oat  to  burn 
Tho  vilest  sinner  may  return.'' 

Pray  to  God,  in  the  sincerity  of  your  heart, 
that  tli<-  scales  of  error  may  fall  from  your 
sinful  eyes,  so  thai  you  may  see  the  pure 
li-ht  of  the  gospel,  and  do  penance  for 
yourmisspenl  life.  Think,  oh  think,  poor 
deluded  man,  of  the  number  of  souls  you 

have  l u   tin-  means  of  sending  to  thai 

eternity  of  sorrow,  where  the  worm  dieth 
not  and  where  the  fire  is  never  quenched  I 


NOTE. 

On  tin1  eve  of  going  to  press,  I  was  asked  if  I  had  seen 
Dr.  Clark's  book  ;  to  which  I  replied  in  the  negative.  A 
day  or  two  after  a  gentleman  presented  me  with  a  copy, 
bearing  the  name  of  "  The  Question  of  the  Hour,"  which 
caused  me  to  change  my  title-page  to  The  Question  Solved. 
Although  his  book  is  sufficiently  vindictive,  it.  is  not  a 
faithful  copy  of  his  lectures,  for  they  were  meaner  still ; 
besides,  he  delivered  other  anti-Catholic  harangues  before 
and  after  he  discussed  "  The  Bible  and  the  School  Fund," 
so  that  I  am  obliged  to  answer  him  in  a  general  way.  He 
did  not  confine  himself  to  the  School  Question  alone ;  he 
wandered  all  over  the  earth,  from  China  to  Hindostan, 
from  Italy  to  England,  from  North  to  South  America,  so 
that  it  would  be  no  small  matter  to  pursue  him  in  his  airy 
flights  and  crooked  ways  ;  for,  as  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lord,  Presi- 
dent of  Dartmouth  College,  once  said,  "  error  and  falsehood 
would  run  around  the  world  while  St.  Paul  would  be  get- 
ting his  boots  on." 

If  any  should  consider  me  harsh  in  dealing  with  these 
questions,  it  is  Dr.  Clark's  fault ;  he  set  the  example.  He 
has  been  so  thoroughly  educated  in  the  school  of  religious 
hate,  that  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  say  a  kind  word  of  any 
one  differing  from  him,  particularly  if  he  had  the  least  sus- 
picion that  the  individual  stood  higher  in  the  moral  scale 
than  himself.  The  Doctor  has  such  an  extravagant  opin- 
ion of  his  own  capacity  for  every  thing  great  and  good  in 
the  world,  that  nobody  else  has  a  chance  to  come  in  for  a 
slice.  He  swells  out  to  such  a  degree,  in  his  boasting,  that 
he  fancies  that  he  could  not  only  swallow  Jonah  but  the 
whale  too. 

Now,  if  like  David  I  have  put  the  stone  of  invincible 
truth  into  my  sling,  and  succeeded  in  hitting  this  Protest- 
ant Goliath  on  his  face  of  brass,  I  shall  feel  amply  repaid 
for  this  small  effort  in  the  cause  of  religious  progress. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
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This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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